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LECTURES 


ON THE 


ATHEISTIC CONTROVERSY; 


age. 
DELIVERED IN THE 


MONTHS OF FEBRUARY AND MARCH, 1834, 


AT SION CHAPEL, BRADFORD, YORKSHIRE. 


FORMING THE FIRST PART 


OF 


A COURSE OF LECTURES ON INFIDELITY. 


BY THE REV. B. GODWIN: 


WITH ADDITIONS BY W.- S. ANDREWS. 


‘‘ Having no hope, and without God, in the world.’ — 


FIRST AMERICAN, FROM THE LONDON EDITION. 


BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY HILLIARD, GRAY & CO. 
1835. 


a: 4 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835, 


By Wituam 8. ANDREWS, 


In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts, 


Wituram A. Haut & Co. Printers, 


: BOSTON ; 
122 Washington street. 


TO THE 
CHURCH AND CONGREGATION 
ASSEMBLING IN SION CHAPEL, BRIDGE-STREET, 
BRADFORD, 
THESE LECTURES, 
WHICH ARE PUBLISHED AT ee ESPECIAL REQUEST, 
ARE WITH AFFECTIONATE REGARD INSCRIBED, 
BY THEIR SINCERE FRIEND 


AND DEVOTED PASTOR, 


B. GODWIN. 


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PREFACE 


TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 


In presenting to the American people a republication 
of this work, I consider myself as performing one of the 
most agreeable acts of my life, and one which I trust 
will be productive of the most beneficial influence upon 
the religion and welfare of the community. The publi- 
cation with me was entirely accidental. I saw a copy of 
it in the Boston Atheneum, presented by Dr. Sharp, who 
had received it from one of his friends in England, a 
member of Dr. Godwin’s society. Struck by the title, 
I was induced to read it, and was so higly gratified by 
the masterly ability with which the author has handled 
the subject, that I immediately applied to Dr. Sharp for 
his consent to a republication of it here, who very politely 
furnished me with a copy for this purpose ;—and also ex- 
pressed his very high opinion of its merits, and his strong 
desire for its republication. 

At the present time, when such systematic and strenu- 
ous efforts are made, as well in this country as in Eu- 
rope, to unsettle the public mind upon the great and fun- 
damental doctrines of religion, and produce a state of the 
most thorough and cheerless scepticism in their place, it 
seems to me the appearance of such a work is extremely 


VI PREFACE. 


seasonable. The character of it in every respect is such 
as the Christian, the philosopher, the scholar, and the 
man of taste could desire. It presents the most power- 
ful, logical, and convincing train of reasoning to the read- 
er, clothed in the most lucid, harmonious, and engaging 
style—and whether regarded in its matter, or its manner, 
it may, I think, be said, with justice, to be as able a pub- 
lication as ever came from the press. As a mere piece 
of composition, it is beautiful—as a connected chain of 
reasoning, it is overpowering and irresistible. The tem- 
per manifested in it, too, is highly creditable to the au- 
thor, and grateful to the reader. The most perfect candor, 
calmness, and, I may say, amiability prevails throughout 
it ;—a spirit of sincerity and benevolence, which seems 
only intent upon the discharge of a great duty, and pro- 
moting the temporal and eternal welfare of his fellow- 
beings. The prejudices of his sceptical brethren are 
alluded to with great delicacy, and they are treated as men 
who have embraced wrong opinions, not from a perversi- 
ty of the heart, but from the fallacy of the head. 
The first lecture consists of a course of reasoning 
which is rather abstruse, and requires a greater effort of 
_ the mind for its comprehension than all readers are 
either able or willing to bestow. But the remaining five 
lectures are very popular and intelligible in their charac- 
ter, and consist chiefly of illustrations drawn from as- 
tronomy, anatomy, chemistry, and the other physical sci- 
ences. These illustrations are, many of them, original and 
beautiful, and delight at the same time that they con- 
vince. | 
* The work is prepared in a manner so systematic and 
“scientific, that it is well calculated for a class-book for 
the oldest class in Sunday schools—and also for colleges 


PREFACE. VII 


and theological institutions. To be read and admired, 
it is necessary only that it should be known—and the 
friends of religion and the improvement of mankind can- 
not render them a better service, than by giving it notorie- 
ty and a general circulation. 

A short addition is made by me, to the work, contain- 
ing a course of reasoning, which had occurred to my 
mind, somewhat different from the author’s, in support of 
the existence of a God. Though this may not be needed, 
it may be useful, as coming in confirmation of his own, 
and as shewing how different minds, who are in pursuit 
of truth, may arrive at the same conclusion, by a process 
not altogether similar. With these remarks, I commit 
the work to the kindness of the public, happy in being 
the almoner of another’s bounty, and trusting they will re- 
ceive the same gratification and instruction from its pe- 
rusal which I have obtained. W.S. A. 


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PREFACE. 


Tue subject of these Lectures is confessedly of the first 
importance, and deserves the most serious and general 
attention ; it constitutes the foundation of all religious 
truth, and has, therefore, not only occupied the minds, 
but employed the pens of the most profound philosophers, 
and the ablest divines. Till within a few months, nothing 
was farther from the author’s thoughts, than to add an- 
other to the many volumes which have been written on 
this supremely interesting topic. The circumstances in 
which this work originated, and which seemed scarcely 
to leave an alternative, must be his apology—if any apolo~ 
gy be deemed necessary—for its publication. Something 
more than twelve years ago, Providence directed the au- 
thor’s steps to one of the most populous manufacturing dis- 
tricts of this kingdom ; he soon observed, that the character 
of the population, in general, was marked by no small de- 
gree of activity, and energy, and enterprise, extending to 
every subject which engaged their attention; that they 
seldom remained indifferent spectators, or silent observ- 
ers of what was passing around them, but on all ques- 
tions of trade, politics, or religion, they generally took a 
decided part, and, whether right or wrong, pursued their 
object with determination and spirit. While, therefore, 
he beheld with satisfaction the vigorous efforts which 


x PREFACE. 


were made to support most of the benevolent institutions 
which distinguish the present day, he saw with deep re- 
gret, vice assuming a great degree of boldness, and per- 
ceived, thata daring spirit of infidelity had,toa considerable 
extent, not only rejected the truths of revelation, but even 
denied or questioned the being of aGod. He found, that 
besides regular meetings for discussing the favorite topics 
of scepticism, many works of infidelity were in circula- 
tion, and that the opportunities afforded for the inculca- 
tion of its tenets, by the frequent intercourse to which 
manufacturing employments give rise, were by no means 
lost. He frequently wished, that some one qualified for 
the undertaking would step forward in the cause of 
truth, and endeavor, by a reference to nature, and an ap- 
peal to reason, to stop the progress of errors so perni- 
cious. ‘To one or two friends of scientific attainments, a 
plan of this kind was suggested, but in vain; while the 
pressure of the author’s engagements, and the sense of 
the importance of such an undertaking, deterred him from 
making the attempt, though it still continued to occupy 
his thoughts. 

Towards the close of 1833, the following placard was 
posted on the walls of the town, and neighborhood: 

“On Sunday last, in the Primitive Methodist Chapel, 
Mr. Matfin, eG ier to previous announcement, repeat- 
ed a Gets Of eb on INFIDELITY, Which he had ae de- 
livered in the surrounding villages. Its character was 
therefore known, and, prior to its repetition, last Sunday 
evening, he received a letter, of which the following is a 
copy : 

““<Sir,—As you have taken advantage of the protection 
of the pulpit to misrepresent and abuse a certain Papas 


PREFACE. XI 


of your fellow-creatures, whose only peculiarity is a de- 
votedness to truth, a refusal to profess opinions, which 
appear to them erroneous and absurd, though the reward 
of their honesty be the persecutions of interested hypoc- 
risy on the one hand, and of prejudice, bigotry, and su- 
perstition, on the other;—as you have described such as 
enemies to human happiness, and fit only to be hunted 
from society, common justice requires, that while you 
thus endeavor to commit them to the antipathies of your 
hearers, you should allow them to be heard in their own 
defence. You are, therefore, requested either to permit 
areply at the termination of your sermon, or otherwise 
offer the use of your chapel for that purpose, some even- 
ing of the ensuing week. You have described infidels 
as the most vicious and detestable beings in nature; but 
if you refuse them the common justice here demanded, 
your conduct will belie your words, and will prove you 
to be much more vicious and detestable, 


“* Bradford, November 15th, 1833.? 


“ At the conclusion of the sermon, and while the col- 
lection was progressing, Mr. M. stated, that he had re- 
ceived a very ridiculous letter from the infidels, but he 
must tell them, that ‘if any one attempted to read any 
thing, or speak, or kick up a dust,’ they would subject 
themselves to a penalty of forty-one pounds, and that 
officers were in attendance to mark them out, in order that 
the law might be enforced. 

“Here is a pretty specimen of the liberality of par- 
sons! They will only assert the truth of Christianity 
where their dogmas cannot be gainsayed! If, however, 
they be sincere in their declaration, that such a doom, as 
_ they assert, awaits those who differ from them in opinion 


sl e 


XII PREFACE. 


and belief, is it not then their duty to hear, and answer 
the reasons assigned for such difference? They must 
know, that belief is not dependent on the will—it is the 
result of perception, and that, therefore, declamation 
against, and vituperation of infidelity, are quite useless. 
Persuasion or threatenings can be of no avail to alter 
opinions and_ belief honestly entertained ;—all such 
changes must be the result of conviction from reflection, 
reasoning, and argument. They should establish the 
truth of their creed, by exhibiting the force of its evi- 
dence, and the futility of all objections. Let any one, 
competent to this task, undertake it, and he may obtain 
the co-operation of the sceptic for the eliciting of the 
truth. 
“‘ Bradford, November 22d, 1833.” 


On reading the above, the author at once felt that such 
an appeal should be met; and as he found that no one 
else was likely to take up the subject, he determined on 
attempting to “establish the truth ” of what is generally 
believed, “by exhibiting the force of its evidence, and the 
futility of all objections.” As soon as his intentions 
were known, those who had espoused the sentiments 
alluded to, professed themselves highly pleased, and of- 
fered to render any assistance to such an investigation. 
A public meeting for discussion was suggested ; but that, 
on several accounts, was declined, as less eligible than a 
course of lectures. It was also requested, that permis- 
sion might be given to those who held sceptical opinions, 
to reply, in the chapel, to the arguments which might be 
advanced; but this was not admissible. The author, 
however, went as far as he could with propriety ; he pro- 
mised them a syllabus of the lectures, and offered, when 
they should fix on a time and place for replying, to an- 
nounce the appointment from the pulpit, and with his 


PREFACE. . XIII 


friends to hear what should be advanced by them; and, 
farther, that if they should prove any statement of im- 
portance to be incorrect, or any material argument un- 
sound, he would willingly acknowledge it. The diffi- 
culty of obtaining a suitable place was finally alleged as 
a reason for abandoning this plan, and the author was 
urged to commit his lectures to the press, that they might 
thus receive an answer. So urgent, indeed, was the re- 
quest, that a deputation from the body, offered to print the 
lectures at their own expense, if they should be furnish- 
ed with the manuscript. As to publishing, no decided 
reply could then be given; but they were promised, at all 
events, copious notes. 

In February and March the lectures were delivered in 
Sion Chapel, where the author officiates as pastor. The 
interest felt in the town and neighborhood was far great- 
er than the lecturer had anticipated. The place was 
crowded to excess; the congregation increasing as the 
course proceeded, and though the préssure and heat were 
great, a silent and unremitting attention was given to the 
whole of the lectures, which occupied, on an average, 
each, about two hours and a quarter in delivery. Those 
who had embraced the tenets of infidelity, were general 
and regular in their attendance, and their behavior was 
marked with propriety. Indeed, it is but just to say, that 
in all the communications the author has had with the 
leaders of the sceptical party, he has been treated with 
the utmost respect and courtesy. In his intercourse with 
them he has often expressed his deep concern for their 
welfare, and his sense of the pernicious nature of their 
principles, which they have uniformly received with 
kindness. It is also but just to add, that though the 
greater part of those who are professedly sceptical, deny, 
it appears, the existence of a supreme and intelligent 


XIV PREFACE. 


Creator, distinct from nature, they are not, as far as the 
author can learn, disgraced by licentious habits; many 
of them he believes to be men of upright conduct, against 
whom nothing can be alleged but their principles. That 
such men should embrace a system so contrary to the 
general sense of mankind, so opposed to the conclu- 
sions of most of the wisest and best of men; a system so 
extravagant in its opinions, so barren of all that is good, 
so unfavorable in its aspect on virtue, is a cause of sur- 
prise and regret. May “the Father of lights” mercifully 
convince them of their error—may they “know the 
truth,” and may the truth “make them free.” 

In addition to the frequent and urgent requests of the 
followers of infidelity, and the great difficulty found in 
furnishing, according to promise, such notes as would 
answer the purpose, a unanimous and affectionate request - 
came from the author’s own beloved charge, that the lec- 
tures might be published,—he could hesitate no longer. 

In consequence of these circumstances, they now ap- 
pear before the public. The local interest cannot, of 
course, be expected to be widely extended, but the author 
could not well print for some, without publishing for all. 
It was felt to be a disadvantage that so many had writ- 
ten, and ably written on the same subject, but none have 
written precisely in the same way; and besides, many 
will probably read these lectures, who have not time, or 
opportunity, or inclination to read other works. It was 
difficult to keep clear of the ground which others had oc- 
cupied; but it is presumed, that no candid and judicious 
critic will suppose that complete originality was either 
practicable or desirable. The author has, of course, read 
on the subject, but he has thought. for himself; and, as 
it has, no doubt, happened to others, trains of thought, 
which to him were original, he has often found, subse- 


PREFACE. XV 


quently, in writers already before the public. He has 
deemed it right to avail himself of all the information 
which was accessible to him, that bears upon the subject: 
he has often quoted, but never, he believes, copied. 
While the author was preparing the lectures, a work was 
put into his hands, published a few years since, by a 
highly respectable and talented minister of the Methodist 
New Connection, on the same subjcet ;* but, as the au- 
thor found on inspection, that this gentleman referred 
principally to the work whose atheistic tenets he also in- 
tended to examine, he laid it aside without a perusal, lest 
he should be in the dilemma of either appearing to copy 
him, or of giving up ground which might be advantage- 
ously occupied. Perhaps this was being unnecessarily 
fastidious, but the author felt it the only way in which 
he could comfortably proceed. As yet, he has not had the 
pleasure of a perusal of this work; now he will be able 
to enjoy it, 

A considerable degree of surprise has been expressed 
at the delay in the publication of these lectures. The 
author is well aware that the sale of the work will suffer 
from it, as much of the deep interest felt at the time 
when the lectures were delivered, must have subsided; 
yet, it was unavoidable, and he begs his friends to accept 
the following reasons as an apology. For nearly two 
months after the delivery of the lectures, the author was 
from home; one month, or nearly so, on business con- 
nected with the institution of which he was a tutor, and 
a few weeks afterwards on account of ill health. As the 
lectures, before their delivery, though pretty fully written, 
were not in a condition to meet any other eye than that 
of their author, it was necessary that they should be en-- 


The Rey, T,, Allin, 


i sy 
XVI PREFACE. 


tirely re-written. In addition to this, every argument has 
been re-examined, authorities re-consulted, and quota- 
tions verified. The interruptionsalso, from official duties, 
corrections and revisions of the press, &c., have not been 
few. It would have been much more satisfactory to the 
author’s own mind, if he could have had yet a few months 
more to revise the whole; but the continued demand for 
the appearance of the work rendered expedition desira- 
ble. He wished to place the subject in the most con- 
vineing form, before the minds of those whose welfare 
he has more particularly sought; and deeply would he 
regret if he should fail in his object, through incapacity 
to do justice to so important a subject. In pursuing so 
many trains of thought, in introducing proofs and illus- 
trations of so varied a kind, in touching on so many 
points of a difficult and delicate nature, in so many dis- 
quisitions of an abstract and metaphysical kind, it would 
be strange indeed, if both friends and opponents should 
not find something to which they might object; but for 
all that is material in the great argument, the author has 
no fear. He by no means deprecates the honorable criti- 
cism of friends, nor wishes to escape the most searching 
investigations of the unbeliever. He has no doubt but 
the practised eye will discover marks of haste ; he hopes, 
however, that the inaccuracies will be few, and not im- 
portant. The lectures are substantially the same in mat- 
ter and method as they were delivered; they could not 
possibly be the same verbatim, as many of the most 
affecting appeals, as well as several of the illustrations, 
had no place in the previous notes. The style of ad- 
dress is preserved as nearly as possible; but the author 
must confess, that in preparing the lectures for the press, 
much of the spirit that attended their delivery, seems to 
have escaped; to write in the study, and to speak toa 


PREFACE. XVII 


crowded audience, whose attention is evidently and 
deeply excited, are very different things: 

No sooner was the intended publication of the lectures 
announced, than public information was given that they 
would receive a reply. Nor will the reply, it is believed, 
be long delayed; as, at the particular request of the 
sceptical party, the author has furnished them with the 
sheets as each lecture passed through the press. He has 
also to acknowledge, on their part, the readiness with 
which they furnished the author with works which advo- 
cated their sentiments, which were not: in his own 
library. The arguments combatted, are principally, 
though not entirely, taken from ‘ The System of Nature,’ 
a work which bears the name of Mirabaud, though it was 
probably written by some other person or persons.* The 
principal objections in Mr. Hume’s ‘ Dialogues on Natural 
Religion,’ are also noticed, together with the arguments, 
or objections of some others. The reason why the pref- 
erence was given to ‘The System of Nature,’ was, that 
besides its containing a more full and complete exhibition 
of the atheistic philosophy, than any one work with 
which the author is acquainted, and its being less gross- 
ly offensive in its language than most, it is considerably 
read in his neighborhood, and appeals are often made to 
it. With other works of a similar tendency, it is pub- 
lished in cheap numbers for more general circulation. 


*The author could not procure a copy of the ‘System of Na- 
ture’ in French, or he certainly would have consulted it; but as 
it is the English copy which is circulated and read in bis neigh- 
borhood, the references to this are more convenient. The edition 
is the third, octavo, in two volumes. The other works of a scep- 
tical kind quoted, with: the exception of Mr. Hume, are from 
‘The Deist,’ a work which boldly advocates atheistical princi- 
ples, published by Mr, Carlisle. 

B 


XVIII PREFACE. 


That his townsmen, who intend to animadvert on these 
lectures, will treat him with courtesy, the author has no 
reason to fear; but he earnestly entreats them to combat 
not for victory, but for truth: he affectionately and 
solemnly begs them, and others inclined to sceptical 
principles, who may read these lectures, to give them a 
serious and candid perusal, and in the calmness of retire- 
ment, and the coolness of reflection, to inquire “ what is 
truth 2”? Whether the author will feel it is duty to take 
any public notice of the intended reply, will depend on 
its character ; he has no time for needless controversy, or 
trifling logomachy, while he would not shrink from prop- 
erly conducted discussion, which has important truth 
for its object. 

It is hoped that the lectures now introduced to the 
public, may not be useless to those, who, from their con- 
nections or circumstances, are exposed to the attacks of 
infidelity, or the seductions of “a vain philosophy ; ” es- 
pecially those whose youthful and ardent minds may be 
more liable to danger. Very thankful would the author 
be, should they be the means either of prevention or 
cure. 

It was the author’s intention to follow up the present 
course, by another on the Christian Revelation; but 
what he has already done, has occupied so much time, 
and caused the suspension of so many duties, that, if he 
should deem it requisite to resume the subject, some 
time must elapse before he returns to it. In the mean 
time, he earnestly implores the Divine blessing on this 
attempt. 


Bowling Cottage, Bradford, Yorkshire, 
Oct. 31st, 1834. 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE I. 


PRELIMINARY REMARKS.—THE ARGUMENTS STATED.—PRE- 


SUMPTIVE PROOFS. 
Prev. Rem. 


Introduction—Importance of the subject—Rea- 
sons for taking it peculiar to the present time 

Address on the proposed method—to Christians— 
to Unbelievers - - - ~ - - - 


Tue ARGUMENT STATED. 


The great point of Controversy—on this Atheism 
cannot obtain Certainty—Concessions to this 
Effect (Note) = +=" - — he - 


PRESUMPTIVE PRoorFs. 


General Belief unaccountable on the Principles of 
Atheism—whether supposed to be derived from 
Tradition—or to arise from the Constitution of 
Man—or from Reason—the Atheistic Attempt 
at explanation examined - - - - - 

The Circumstances in which the Conviction of the 
Existence of a God is the strongest—Failure of 
the Attempt to account for this = yaonete.- 


11 


15 


20 


30 


xX CONTENTS. 


Moral Phenomena of Atheism—At.empted Re- 
tort—French Revolution—Robespierre (Note) 
—Opinions influenced by the Moral state - 

Address—to Christians—to Unbelievers - - 


ee 


LECTURE II. 


ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESIS EXAMINED. 


Introduction—the Task which Atheism has to 
perform - - - - - - ~ - 


First Hyporuesis. 
That Matter, &c. had a beginning without a Maker 
Seconp Hyporuesis. 

That the whole System of Nature has existed as 
it now is from all Eternity—Preliminary Re- 
marks—Absurdities in which it is involved— 
History and Science contradict it—Lucretius, 
Macrobius, &c.—Geology—Astronomy - - 


Turp Hyporuesis. 

That Matter is eternal, and that the various forms 
of Existence sprang wholly from its Inherent 
Properties—T wo Positions assumed by this Hy- 
pothesis; First, that Matter is Eternal—the Ar- 
guments for this Examined—proved to rest only 
on gratuitous Assumptions—and to be attended 
with Insuperable Difficulties = - ~ . - 

Second Position of this Hypothesis, that Matter, 
by its own Inherent Properties, has produced all 
things—Properties and Laws of Matter—the 
Eternity of Motion examined—Experience— 
Testimony—Analogy—the total Failure of the 
Hypothesis - - - - - - - 


32. 
37 


40 


46 


46 


57 


68 


CONTENTS. XxI 


LECTURE III. 


PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD FROM THE WORKS OF 
NATURE, 
P. 


Introduction—Selection necessary—the Nature of 
the Argument—A theistic Exceptions to it notie- 
ed—no Experience to guide us—the necessary 
Laws of Matter—the Proofs to be adduced lim- 
ited to Man and his Relations - - - - 88 
Tue Paysican Structure or Man. 


The Frame-work—the Muscles—the Nerves—the 


Skin . - - - - - - = 97 
The adaptation of Parts to each other - - 116 
The Provision made for the Preservation of the 

System - ~ - - - ~ ~ - 118 
How this Provision is distributed - - - 126 
The degree of dependence which the Working of 

this Machinery has on the Will i tet spree Se 
Recapitulation—Animadversions on some Atheis- 

tic Statements - - - - - - - 137 
Appeal—Coneclusion - - - - . - 141 

LECTURE IV. 


PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD FROM THE WORKS OF 
NATURE CONTINUED—OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 


Introduction—Dishonorable expedient of some Ad- 
vocates of Infidelity (Note) -~ - : - 144 


Man wn RELATION To THE WoRLD WHICH HE. INHABITS. 
Dheeireunients) Wee ae ns on eee 14 


XXII CONTENTS. 


The Appetites which indicate Man’s Wants, and 
the Provision which Nature affords to supply 
them- — - - - - - - - - 149 
The Atmosphere in which Man lives, and the 
Organization which has especial Relation to it 157 


Light and the Organ of Vision - - — - - 168 
Man in Connection with Beings of his own Spe- 
cies - - - - - - - 182 


The Adaptation of the Instrument by which Man 
acts on external Nature to the Mind which em- 
ploys it - - - - - - - - 182 


THe RELATION OF THE WoRLD wuHicH MAN INHABITS 
TO THE GREAT SYSTEM OF WHICH IT FORMS A PART. 


The Solar System - Sie the - - - 194 

The relative Position of the Sun—Rotation of the 
Earth on its Axis—lInclination of its Axis— 
Combination of the centripetal and centrifugal 
Forces—the Harmony of the whole—apparent 
Irregularities - - - - - - - 196 


Repty To OBJECTIONS. 


Attempts to Account for the Formation of Man— 
System of Nature—Palmer—Process of Nature 
—Germs and Matrices—Lucretius - - - 204 

Progressive advance to higher Species—not sup- 
ported by Facts—Egyptian Mummies—Mr. 
Lyell (Note)—that Efforts, &c. produced Or- 
gans - - ~ - - - - - - 214 

The Parts accidentally formed led to their respec- 
tive uses - - - - - - - - 220 


CONTENTS. XXIII 


P. 
That whatever exists must exist in some Form or 
Mode - - - - - - - - 223 
That Matter may contain the Source or Spring of 
Order within itself - - . - - - 223 
Natural Religion charged with Anthropomor- 
phism - - - - - - - - 226 
Concluding Address - - - - - - 231 
LECTURE V. 


THE VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US TO FORM OF THE 
SUPREME BEING. 


Introduction - =) mise - - - - 233 


Tue Nature or THE SupREME BEING. 
Eternal — Independent—Self-existent—Infinite— 
Immutable—Omnipresent—a Spirit—his Unity 236 
Tue CHARACTER OF Gop. 
Natural Attributes—W isdom—Power - - 245 
Moral Perfections—Justice—Benevolence - - 252 
Tue GovERNMENT oF Gop. — 


Providential Government—Universal— Particular 


—T wo distinct Views of this examined - - 256 
Moral Government - - - - - - 265 
Oxpsections NorTicep. 
Why so many Creatures apparently useless - 271 
The amount of existing Evil - - - ~ 273 
Concluding Address - - - - - ~~ ~- 283 


XXIV CONTENTS. 


LECTURE VI. 


THE ATUEISTIC PHILOSOPHY COMPARED, JIN SOME OF ITS 
PRINCIPAL FEATURES, WITH CHRISTIANITY. 


P. 

Introduction—General Remarks on ‘ Vain and 
Deceitful Philosophy ”—the Comparison - - 286 

Various Points or Contrast Noricen. 

In the Character and Aspect under which the two 
Systems present themselves to our Notice - 293 

In what they teach respectively, and the manner 
of their teaching - - ~ - - - 297 
In their Adaptation to Human Nature - - - 299 
In the Extent of their Influence - - - - 301 


Turee EspeciaL Pornts or CoMPaRIsoN. 
Their Views of Man—his Origin—Relation— _ 
Prospects - - - - - - - - 304 
T heir Influence on Morals—an Atheistic Compari- 
son examined—Influence of the two Systems to 
restrain Crime and Promote Virtue - - - 312 
Their Capability of affording Happiness—Means 
of Enjoyment common to both—Sources of 
Happiness peculiar toeach - ~~ - ~ = 827 
Concluding Address—to Atheistic Hearers—to 
Parents and Guardians—to Professing Chris- 
tians—to Youth—to Townsmen - -~— - 337 


LECTURE I. 


PRELIMINARY REMARKS— THE ARGUMENTS 
STATED— PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. 


PSALM C. 3.— “ KNOW YE THAT THE LORD HE IS GOD}; IT IS 
HE THAT HATH MADE US, AND NOT WE OURSELVES; WE 
ARE HIS PEOPLE, AND THE SHEEP OF HIS PASTURE.” 


Ir seems to be a law of our nature, given for the most 
beneficial purposes, that we should ever be desirous of 
communicating our sentiments and opinions to others. 
A most important result of this is the increase of know- 
ledge, and the general improvement of sociéty. Were 
each to confine to his own bosom the amount of his ob- 
servation and experience, knowledge could never accu- 
mulate, science could not be extended, and one of the 
most important advantages of man’s social condition 

l 


2 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. LECT. “1: 


would be lost. But this cannot be; we are so constitu- 
ted that an inward impulse is ever operating, to produce 
a communication of our thoughts and feelings. Cir- 
cumstances may, indeed, exist, which may greatly mod- 
ify this propensity ; but, generally speaking, the greater 
the importance which we attach to any subject, and the 
deeper the interest which we feel in it, the stronger is 
the desire to engage the attention of others to it. When, 
in addition to this, we have a conviction that the welfare 
of others is essentially connected with the adoption of 
our own views, every benevolent feeling of the heart 
adds its weight to the motives which induce us to im- 
part these sentiments to others. It is no wonder, then, 
that the operation of religion on the mind should pow- 
erfully act on this law of our nature, as nothing can 
equal the solemnity of its truths, the grandeur of its ob- 
jects, ard the influence which it has on the happiness 
of man, both hereand hereafter. The existence of God, 
in his glorious perfections, as the creator and governor 
of the universe, is the foundation of all religious truth. 
It is this which, deeply impressing the mind of the 
Psalmist, produced the language which I have just 
read as the ground of our discourse. While he devout- 
ly admires the greatness and the goodness of the ever- 
living God, he calls on all to acknowledge his suprema- 
cy, andto render to him “the glory due unto his name.” 
“now ye that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath 
made us, and not we ourselves; we are the people of 
his hand, and the sheep of his pasture.” 


LECT. 1] PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 3 


Jehovah, usually translated Lord, is a name given to 
the Supreme Being by the sacred writers of the Old 
Testament; it is derived from a root which signifies 
existence, and denotes the existing one by way of dis- 
tinction and emphasis, the one who has existence in a 
sense peculiar to himself and superior to all other be- 
ings. This awful power, of underived and unchanging 
existence, is Gop; who is the first cause, the sole pro- 
prietor, and the supreme governor of all. “It is he 
that hath made us, and not we ourselves ;” we are there- 
fore subject to his control, and dependent on his bounty, 
‘‘we are the people of his hand, and the sheep of his 
pasture.” These are the views which the devout Psalm- 
ist takes of the great Jehovah; these are the senti- 
ments which he is desirous of impressing on the minds 
of others; and this is the all-important theme on which, 
with all humility and becoming solemnity, I would now 
enter. 

As few, if any, in our congregations, deny or doubt 
the existence of the Deity, it is very rare that any proof 
is advanced from the pulpit on the subject, or that it 
is treated in an argumentative way. It seems unneces- 
sary to prove what all admit, or to adduce evidence of 
what is commonly received with the certainty of an ax- 
iom. But there may be circumstances which may re- 
quire the exposition and defence of the most undoubted 
principles; and such, Iam compelled to believe, is the 
case now. When all that we hold sacred is contemn- 
ed; when all the objects of our belief are attacked, and 
our dearest hopes are treated as visionary and delusive; 


4 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [LECT. I. 


and when, at the same time, those who throw down the 
gauntlet, and bid defiance to every thing which bears 
the name of religion, declare that their “ only peculiar- 
ity is a devotedness to truth,” it is high time to show 
the Christian that his hopes are not mere fancies, nor 
his faith a “ cunningly devised fable,” and to meet the 
challenge of the professed inquirers after truth with 
such evidence as we hope will satisfy them, —as we 
believe must satisfy every honest and unprejudiced 
mind. My intention is, therefore, if health and strength 
permit, to follow up the present course with a series of 
lectures on the truth of divine revelation; but as a 
revelation necessarily supposes the existence of a Su- 
preme Being, we shall, at present, confine ourselves to 
this great fundamental article of all religious belief. 

To be engaged in the pursuit of truth, is an employ- 
ment so congenial to the mind of man, and the acquisi- 
tion of truth is so valuable to a rational being, that he 
who makes no endeavor after the attainment, acts a part 
unworthy of the rank which he holds in the scale of 
being. “ Buy the truth and sell it not,” is at once the 
dictate of reason, and the injunction of revelation. All 
iruths are not, however, of equal consequence; there 
are innumerable points on which information would be 
of no conceivable importance: in many cases, the only 
advantage of knowledge isthe pleasure which it affords 
by satisfying a rational curiosity, or the tendency which 
it has to enlarge and strengthen the mind. But the 
existence or non-existence of a Supreme Being, who, as 
the maker, the proprietor, and governor of all things, 


LECT. I.] PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 5 


is at the head of the universe, is a point which is of 
unspeakable importance to our present happiness and 
our future welfare. This is not a question of tempo- 
rary loss or gain, of mere comfort or uneasiness, the 
resolution of which may be disregarded without fear 
of any serious injury; but it is an inquiry which in- 
volves all that is dear to man, all that is important to 
man, through all the extent of his relations and the 
whole duration of his existence. It is, whether there is 
a being who pervades all space, whosurveys all nature, 
who governs all creatures; who has unlimited power 
to save or to destroy; who is the perfection of all good- 
ness, the pattern of all excellence, the protector of vir- 
tue, the avenger of the oppressed, the refuge of the 
needy, and the punisher of all vice ; who will in anoth- 
er world crown all the exertions and reward all the 
sufferings of humble piety with unspeakable felicity, 
and render unto the wicked according to their works; 
or, whether all this is but a fiction of the imagination, 
the invention of cunning and designing men, a false, 
absurd, and irrational superstition, from which it is one 
of the highest efforts of wisdom and benevolence to at- 
tempt to deliver the human mind. All that excites the 
hopes and fears, the anxieties and solicitudes of our 
minds, in relationto this world, is nothing — absolutely 
nothing, when compared to what is involved in this 
great question:—lIs there a supreme and gracious pow- 
er, in whose mercy I may hope, when conscious of a 
thousand imperfections, in whose compassion I may 
find a refuge amidst all my sorrows and my griefs, in 


6 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [LECT. I. 


whom I may trust when earthly help fails, and who is 
able, after the changes of a brief mortal existence, to 
give to my soul that enlarged happiness after which I 
pant, of which I feel my nature is capable, and which 
will be an ample indemnification for all the sufferings 
of this probationary state!— or, is there no hope for 
the distressed beyond his own resources — is there no 
help for him when earthly good forsakes him—is all 
above him and beyond him a cheerless blank, or a dark 
and impenetrable cloud? Is there a being whose will 
is law to the universe, who, “ glorious in holiness,” is 
“angry with the wicked every day,” who sees all the 
recesses of the guilty heart, knows all the misdeeds of 
the transgressor, whose omnipotent power can crush 
the haughtiest sinner in the dust, who will call all to 
an account for “the deeds done in the body,” and not 
allow vice, however sheltered by rank or veiled in ob- 
scurity, to go unpunished ? — Or, is there no law supe- 
rior to man’s desires, no omniscient eye to look on the 
deeds of darkness, no divine power to fear, no accoun- 
tability to be concerned for; has the guilty wretch, 
whose life has been a scene of criminal indulgence, of 
perfidy and cruelty to others, a torment and a curse to 
society, no more reason to fear than the tiger of the des- 
ert, which, having lived on blood and rapine, a terror to 
every inferior beast, crawls into his den, breathes out 
his life, and becomes nothing more than a putrid lump 
of various elements, hastening to mingle with the earth 
which was the scene of all his cruelties? Such is the 
nature of the inquiry on which we now enter; and 


LECT. 1.] PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 7 


what can equal the importance of this subject? All 
the facts of history, all the discoveries of science, all the 
concerns of life, sink into utter insignificance, when 
brought into comparison with it. 

At all times, and in all circumstances, the great 
theme which is now to engage our attention is, and 
ought to be, deeply interesting, both to those who be- 
lieve, and to those who doubt; but there are reasons, 
peculiar to the present time and circumstances, which 
induce me to think that an examination of this all-im- 
portant subject is now particularly seasonable. 

By the extension of education, by the wide diffusion 
of knowledge, and the great facilities which exist for 
the communication of ideas and opinions on all sub- 
jects, the thinking faculty has received a most astonish- 
ing impulse, and the spirit of inquiry has gone forth 
oh all the length and breadth of the land. Every 
thing now must be subject to a scrutiny. Opinions 
which have been held sacred for ages, institutions of 
remote antiquity, political relations, civic economy, ec- 
_ clesiastical polity, all are now brought to the test of in- 
quiry. In such a state of things it 1s no matter of sur- 
prise, that not only the peculiar doctrines and varying 
forms of the several sects should be regarded as ques- 
tionable, but that ample proof should be demanded of 
those truths on which, as its basis, all religion rests. 
It is necessary, then, to show that those sacred princi- 
ples which sustain the hopes and cheer the spirit of 
man, which exert a salutary influence over his life, and 
support him in the hour of death, are founded in rea- 


8 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. (LECT. “1. 


son; that they have not only the stamp of antiquity but 
the seal of truth; —that, far from shunning the light, 
they solicit inquiry, and have nothing to fear from the 
closest and most impartial examination. 

The increased activity of the abettors of Scepticism is 
also a circumstance which deserves attention. As 
might be expected, they have availed themselves of the 
facilities which the wide diffusion of knowledge has af- 
forded, to disseminate their tenets. And, unhappily, 
the prosecutions of the late government have given a 
notoriety to the apostles of infidelity, which, otherwise, 
they never could have obtained; and have even, in the 
minds of many, there is great reason to think, created a 
degree of interest, and led them to suppose that there 
must be some truth in that for which men appeared so 
willing to suffer: this has probably assisted the efforts 
of those who are laboring, with no small zeal, to propa- 
gate their own hostility to everything which others re- 
gard as sacred. And though many who rail at religion 
are capable of showing nothing but their hatred of all 
that is holy, scarcely knowing “what they say, nor 
whereof they affirm,” there are, it must’ be acknowl- 
edged, men of ingenuity and talent, who rank among 
the opponents of Christianity, who, by their writings, 
supply others with the weapons of their warfare. Now, 
many of our young people, and others who have not 
had much opportunity of reading, meet with persons 
and works of this description; they are assailed at 
once by the ingenuity of argument and the boldness of 
assertion, and if they have no means of reply, will they 


LECT. I.] PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 9 


not be, not only staggered, but led, perhaps, to conclude, 
that what is so plausible must be true, that what is so 
strongly affirmed, must have some evidence for its sup- 
port. It seems necessary, therefore, that an antidote 
should be provided, that those who are thus assailed. 
should be able “to give a reason of the hope that is 
within them,” that they should be able to detect the 
error of a profane sophistry, and to see that the cause 
of holiness is the cause of truth. 

Nor must it be concealed that the disciples of infidel- 
ity have latterly been considerably increasing in num- 
ber. Ido no wonder at it. Why should we be sur- 
prised that, while so many have a thorough dislike to 
all that is pious and spiritual, some should be found 
who openly say, “let us break ae bonds asunder, and 
cast away their cords from us;”—-that speculative 
minds, who see no beauty in religion, as freedom of 
opinion prevails, should throw off both the form and the 
name of Christianity? I do expect that the number of 
such will still increase, and that the cause of infidelity 
will receive farther accessions, not from the ranks of 
piety, but from a nominal Christianity, and a concealed 
scepticism.* I see no reason for any fear in the pros- 


* That there is already much more infidelity than is apparent, 
no one doubts, who has a general acquaintance with the present 
state of society. Should the course of events be such, as by any 
means to allow of an unrestrained expression of sceptical opin- 
ions, without the fear of incurring odium, or suffering inconve- 
nience of some kind or other, many who now in private life are 
hostile to religion, would become its avowed opponents, There 


10 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [LECT. I. 


pect of. such a result; nor does it appear to meas a 
gloomy and portentous “sign of the times.” If the 
great struggle should at last be between Christianity 
and infidelity, what has truth to fear? It is; however, a 
call to the friends of religion to furbish their weapons, 
and be found at their post. 

Another consideration, of no small weight, 1s, that in 
our own town and neighborhood, which have the most 
direct claims on our efforts in the cause of truth and 
holiness, there are many who openly avow the princi- 
ples of infidelity, and are active in disseminating them. 
These have publicly called for evidence to establish the 
truth of religion, have blamed the ministers of Chris- 
tianity for not reasoning with them, and have declared 
their willingness to listen to any arguments which may 
be advanced in its favor. And should such calls be 
disregarded? Should errors, however revolting to our 
minds, render us indifferent to the welfare of so many 
of our fellow-creatures, of our fellow-townsmen? In 
such circumstances, I hope it will not be deemed pre- 
sumption, that I come forward to plead what I believe 
to be the sacred cause of truth, to perform what ought 
to be considered, in the highest sense, a work of mercy. 
“ Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one 
convert him, let him know that he who converteth the 
sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from 


are always some who are daring enough to avow their hostility 
to generally received, and long revered opinions, at any risk; 
but where there isno high principle to support the mind, pru- 
dential motives will generally prevail, 


LECT. I] PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 11 


death, and hide a multitude of sins.” — I do entertain the 
humble hope, I do feel the strong desire that I may be 
able, through the blessing of God, so to place the truth 
before the minds of such, as to show the unreasonable- 
ness of their scepticism, lead them from the paths of 
error, and guide their feet into “the way of peace.” 
And if this great object be realized in any one instance, 
I shall not only feel amply repaid for all my labor, but. 
shall have abundant reason to rejoice, and to praise him 
who is the giver of “every good gift and every perfect 
oft.” : 
_ Let me, then, bespeak a candid interpretation, from 
my Christian friends, of the method which I shall pur- 
sue. Let them be neither surprised nor dismayed, if I 
appear to state hypothetically what they have long taken 
for granted as undeniable arid important truth. Let 
them remember that the placing of any position as a 
question, in order to try the force of the argument which 
affirms or denies it, is never understood to imply any 
doubt or uncertainty in the mind of him who thus states 
it, much less any endeavor to induce others to doubt. 
No argument can well be conducted without such sup- 
positions. Nor let any, who revere the authority of 
scripture as decisive in all questions of morality and 
religion, wonder that it is not quoted in proof of what I 
advance. Ifthose to whom I intend particularly to ad- 
dress myself received the inspired writings as authority, 
there would be no need of any reasoning; but as they 
do not believe the scriptures, a reference to them will 
answer no purpose. My Christian friends will bear 


12 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [LECT. I. 


with me, then, if I attempt to prove at some length what 
they fully believe; and if I do not give prominency to 
those truths of the gospel which are “the life of their 
spirits,” let them remember that the benefit of others 
must be sought as well as their edification; it is not so 
much to the disciple of Christ as to the unbeliever and 
the doubting inquirer, that I shall now address myself. 

To those of my congregation who have joined the 
ranks of infidelity, I would say, Give me your most seri- 
ous attention. The subject is one which, you cannot 
but admit, is of paramount importance. If you are in 
error as to the existence and character of God and your 
relations to him, it is an error of no trifling kind, its 
magnitude is awful, and its consequences alarming. 
Let me intreat you, therefore, to banish from your 
minds everything like levity, to hear as those who are 
listening to a topic in which their’ best interests are in- 
volved, and to judge as reasonable men. 

Let me also request your candid attention. If you 
have any acquaintance with human nature, you must be 
aware of the tendency of prejudice to mislead the judg- 
ment. You may have seen much under the Christian 
name adapted to give very unfavorable impressions of 
Christianity ; but if the appearance of hypocrisy has dis- 
gusted you, do not, on this account, come to the sweep- 
ing conclusion that there is no sincerity. If you have 
seen, in living instances, or in the page of history, reli- 
gion made subservient to mere worldly ends, a means of 
gratifying ambition, of acquiring wealth or power, be- 
ware of the unfairness of attributing to it the abuses of 


LECT. I.] PRELIMINARY REMARKS, 13 


wicked men; and ask whether such conduct is not 
branded with infamy, and such characters regarded with 
disdain, by that religion which is thus insulted and dis- ~ 
honored. If, again, you feel hostile to religion, from an 
aversion to the restraints which it would impose on you, 
or the sacrifices which it would require of you, endeavor, 
while hearing, to divest yourself of this prejudice, and 
inquire only, —Is it true? | 

Allow me also to suggest a caution. Do not hastily 
reject the whole of the statements or reasonings which 
will be presented to you, if you deem some particular 
part to be unsound. It would be doing yourselves a 
serious injury, if, because in a great variety of proofs 
and illustrations, you can single out some that appear 
unconvincing or irrelevant, you on that account refuse 
to admit the general body of evidence adduced. It is 
but just to me, to the subject, and to yourselves, to judge 
by the whole amount of proof, and not by any insulated 
part. 

On such an occasion, I should deem it a useless and 
injurious fastidiousness to affect originality. The in- 
quiry should be, not what is original, but what is true? 
However great the similarity may be in substance, yet 
every one has his own way of stating a fact or conduct- 
ing an argument, and, sometimes, what appears uncon- 
vincing in one point of view, when exhibited in another 
light, or in a different manner, succeeds in producing 
conviction. 

I beg also to state, that while I cannot but consider 
infidelity to be an error of a most pernicious kind, I 


14 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. [LECT. I. 


hold it right, in arguing with those who have embraced 
it, to avoid all harsh and irritating expressions, and to 
treat them as rational beings. Were I to do otherwise, 
I should act contrary to the spirit of that holy religion: 
of which Iam an humble advocate, which is itself “a 
reasonable service,” and which commands us “in meek- 
ness to instruct those who are out of the way;” —1I 
should act contrary to the object I have in view, sensi- 
ble as Lam that no man is ever converted by abuse, or 
enlightened by irritation ;— and, I may add, I should 
act contrary to the feelings which have given rise to 
these lectures, as I trust I can appeal to the “searcher 
of hearts,” for the benevolent, the affectionate concern, 
which I entertain for the welfare of those whose atten- 
tion I have especially solicited to these lectures, and 
who, whatever may be their mistakes, have still, as our 
fellow-creatures and our neighbors, strong claims on 
our sympathy and our kindness. 

But if I speak mildly and cautiously, I must not be 
understood as thinking lightly of the error which I am 
combating. Fidelity to the office which I sustain, as 
well as concern for the best interests of those whom I © 
address, oblige me to state that I consider it as a moral 
poison, which must work the most serious mischiefs ; 
—that I view those who embrace it as being in immi- 
nent danger, in a state of actual rebellion against the 
Most High; and “fighting against God;”— that, ina 
word, they are pursuing a course which, if persisted m, 
must terminate in everlasting ruin. And it is because 
I believe this, that Iam affectionately concerned to gain 


LECT. I.] THE ARGUMENT STATED. 15 


their attention, and to lead their minds into the way of 
truth and peace. 

My respected hearers will, I trust, excuse the length 
to which these prefatory observations have extended ; 
I thought it right that we should have a clear under- 
standing of our object, and the manner in which we 
shall proceed. | | 

Our present controversy is with atheism, the system 
which denies or questions the being of a God. Athe- 
istic writers, indeed, sometimes speak of a “God,” a 
“divinity,” a “cause of causes,” but in all these cases 
they mean the material universe, the properties which 
it possesses, or, a mere abstraction. But this is a falla- 
cious and deceptive use of terms; at least, whatever be 
the intention of the writer, it is such an employment of 
language as tends only to mislead the unwary. Our 
dispute with atheism is not whether there is, or is not, 
a universe of matter; but whether there is, or is not, a 
power distinct from the material system, which, with 
infinite wisdom, has created all, and governs. all. 
Neither is the controversy whether the operations of 
nature are performed by general laws, connecting nat- 
ural causes and effects ina way which may be per- 
ceived; but whether these laws are not the arrange- 
ments of a superior and presiding power,—whether 
there is not a cause of all these causes and effects, to 
which, as the great first cause, all others are to be re- 
ferred. Consequently, when atheism has proved that 
all the operations of nature proceed according to gener- 
al laws, in which we can mostly trace the connexion 


16 THE ARGUMENT STATED. [LECT. I. 


of cause, and effect — such as the falling of a stone by 
the power of gravity, and the revolutions of the planets 
by the centripetal and centrifugal forces — it has prov- 
ed nothing but what we admit; it has done nothing to- 
wards settling the controversy ; it has not advanced one 
single step towards proving that there is no supreme, 
eternal, and primitive cause of all, himself alone uncre- 
ated and independent. 

It must also be noticed, in considering the state of the 
argument between us, that the most successful efforts 
of atheistic reasoning could only reduce the poimt in 
dispute to uncertainty. However bold may be the as- 
sertions of the non-existence of an all-creating power, 
no man can know that there is not such a being ; — no 
man has ever proved, or can prove that there is no God. 
The farthest point to which the most daring sceptic can 
go, without exposing himself to the charge of utter ig- 
norance or the most presumptuous rashness, is to affirm 
that he sees no proof of the existence of a Deity. 
What atheist, who makes any pretensions to reason, 
would venture to affirm, that the existence of an eternal 
being, combining in his nature the attributes of wisdom 
and power, the cause of all causes, and the source of 
all existence, is, in the nature of things, impossible ? 
Everything is possible that does not necessarily imply 
a contradiction. It is not possible that a past event 
should still be future; that what now exists, should not 
now exist; that two halves should make more or less 
than a whole; in each case there is an evident contra- 
diction. But who will dare to affirm that a palpable 


LECT. 1.] THE ARGUMENT STATED. 17 


contradiction is involved in the belief that there is an 
eternal being ; — that all the causes which we now see 
in operation resulted from one great primitive cause — 
and that this original and uncaused being possesses the 
attributes of mind? Does this imply a contradiction 
so self-evident as to shock the reason of man, as soon as 
it is announced? Do we not all know and feel that the 
very contrary is the case? Would it not require all 
the ingenuity of sophistry to give any show of absurdi- 
ty or contradiction to it? If, then, the position that there 
is such a being is not self-contradictory, his existence 
is not impossible; that is, it is possible. No man, there- 
fore, can be certain of the non-existence of that which 
is possible, as that would produce the absurdity of its 
being possible and impossible at the same time. Every 
atheist is, therefore, bound to admit, in all fairness, that 
after all his scepticism, there can be a God; that, after 
all his confidence, he may still be mistaken. 

Who will venture to say that nothing is in being, ex- 
cept what he perceives and knows? How many won- 
derful and powerful agencies in nature have modern 
discoveries brought to light, the existence of which was 
never imagined by past ages, and which, if announced 
to them, might only have excited, in many cases, the 
smile or the contempt of incredulity. With what un- 
bounded surprise, if not utter disbelief, would a philoso- 
pher of Greece or Rome have received the announce- 
ment that there is a power in nature, distributed through 
all its various departments, which is more gentle in its 
usual course than the falling dew, and more terriffic m 

2 


18 THE ARGUMENT STATED. [LECT. I. 


its occasional operations than the wildest hurricane; by 
which the heart beats and the thunder rolls; which can 
sleep quiescent in a jar, or blaze through the wide can- 
opy of heaven, involving the whole world in one sheet 
of flame; that without it life could not exist, while it is 
capable ina moment of rending the solid globe, and 
shivering to atoms the whole material structure of this 
world. Our philosopher, in such a case, might have 
expressed his astonishment, or even his doubts, but 
ought he to have affirmed that no such power could 
exist, because he had not yet discovered it? And is it 
not as unphilosophically daring to affirm that there is 
not, and cannot be, any power as distinct from the elec- 
tric fluid as that is from mechanical force, and as supe- 
rior to it as this mysterious agent is to all human ener- 
gy; that there may not be, in other words, a power to 
which no limits can be assigned, which is distinguished 
by intelligence, to which all other powers act in depen- 
dent subordination, and which is distinct from nature 
only as its author and its source? Have our atheistic 
philosophers discovered every possible secret of nature, 
So as to pronouuce that she has revealed all she has to 
disclose? Are they assured that, in no past age, there 
has been a convincing exhibition of a divine power ? — 
Are they certain that in future ages there never will be 2 
Can they say that, if not within the reach of their own 
observation, the boundless range of nature supplies, in 
no part of the universe, such proof? ‘Yet, such is the 


LECT. I.] THE ARGUMENT STATED. ; 19 


universal knowledge assumed by those who affirm 
“there is no God!’’* 

Whether, then, we can or cannot prove that there is 
a God, it is certain that atheism cannot prove that there 
isno God. Its advocates may deny what we consider 
certain, but they have nothing on this point to substitute 
but doubt; whatever promise of truth it may make, it 
can guide us only to the regions of uncertainty. I beg 
those who are sometimes staggered by the tone of con- 
fidence which infidelity assumes, to remember this. 
And I intreat those who have said, either in their 
hearts, or with their lips, “there is no God,” consider- 
ing the acknowledged uncertainty in which all their 
speculations must still leave the great point in dispute, 
to attend with the utmost seriousness and concern to 


* Concessions of extreme uncertainty as to the origin of the 
universe, and, consequently, as to their favorite position, that it 
had no Creator, are frequently made by the most determined op- 
posers of the existence of a Deity. Mirabaud, or the author of 
the ‘System of Nature,’ which bears his name, who treats the 
idea of a Creator as a “chimera,” a “ fancy,” &c. and, with much 
ingenious sophistry, endeavors to prove that an all-creating intel- 
ligence is a thing impossible and absurd, thus writes: “If it be 
inquired how or for why matter exists; we answer we know 
not.—Vol. I. p. 96. “ But it will be asked, and not a little tri- 
umphantly, from whence did she (nature) receive her motion, 
Our reply is, we know not, neither do they; that we never shall, 
that they never will. It is @ secret hidden from us, concealed 
from them by the most impenetrable veil.”— Vol. I. p, 41. “In 
supposing it (matter) to be created or produced by a being dis- 
tinguished from it, or less known than itself, which it may be, for 
anything that we know to the contrary !’ — Vol. I. p. 96, 


20 PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. [LECT. «1. 


the following presumptive arguments, which lie against 
the atheistic scheme. | 

First: The general belief, in all ages, and in all 
countries, of the existence of a Deity, is unaccountable 
on the principles of atheism, and is a presumption that 
it is not founded in truth. That such has been the 
general belief, none, I presume, will be found to deny. 
This was the case with all the ancient nations, with the 
Indians, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Persians, the 
Greeks, and the Romans; with the hordes of Northern 
barbarians which inundated the Roman empire, and 
which finally amalgamated with the nations of Europe ; 
and with all the tribes of the New World, in the whole 
extent of the American continent. This belief m a su- 
perior power has, indeed, as might be expected by any 
one acquainted with human nature, been greatly modi- 
fied by existing circumstances, according to the degree 

which civilization prevailed, and the temper and ge- 
nius of the people. The mythology of the Greeks was 
full of poetry; that of our Saxon ancestors was fieree 
and warlike. A refined people gave a polish to their 
religious system; and barbarous nations attributed to 
their divinities much of their own grossness. Hence 
there is but little weight in the objection which is some- 
times made, that the gods of these nations were multi- 
plied, were absurd, gross and vicious. The idea of a 
divine being having gained possession of the mind, it 
was by ignorance, passion, fancy, moulded into strange 
shapes and uncouth forms. A single object, and that 
the most regular and perfect, may be multiplied, distort- 


LECT. I1.] PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. al 


ed out of all shape, or broken into apparent fragments, 
and invested with colors which do not properly belong 
to it, according to the medium through which it is 
viewed. This proves nothing against the object; 
though it is decisive, as to the unfavorable nature of 
the medium for giving just perceptions of it. Such, we 
conceive, has been the effect of the very different cir- 
cumstances in which man has been found, on this idea, 
which, from the earliest ages, and in every part of the 
world, has taken possession of his mind. 

Now, how is this belief of all ages and all countries 
to be accounted for? We find it in times and places 
the most remote; in nations which could not, at least 
for a long succession of ages, have any communication 
with each other; as deeply fixed in the minds of the 
savages of America as in those of the European conti- 
nent, or of the ancient Orientals. Admit the position 
that there is a divine Creator, such as the Bible speaks 
of, and all the phenomena are at once explained. It is 
scarcely possible to suppose that a wise and beneficent 
being should have formed such a creature as man, and 
left him wholly ignorant of his origin. The know- 
ledge of his Maker must have been preserved for some 
ages after man’s creation; but as the human race be- 
came depraved, and, in distributing themselves over the 
face of the earth, degenerated into ignorance and barba- 
rism, or, in their refinement, indulged in the wantonness 
of speculation and of fancy, the simple and original idea 
of a Supreme Being was multiplied and distorted into 


22 PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. [LECT. I. 


all the grossness.of idolatry, and all the poetic fictions 
of mythology. 

But, on the atheistic hypothesis, how is this to be 
explained? If it be supposed that the idea was handed 
down by tradition from father to son, from time imme- 
morial, still the question arises, how did the tradition 
originate? If it be an idea so chimerical and repug- 
nant to reason as the advocates of this philosophy would 
have us to believe, how came it to be as early as the 
annals of man, and as wide as the human race? That 
such a tradition should arise in a thousand different 
parts of the globe, and with as many different tribes, or, 
if it be assigned to a common origin, that it should have 
found universal acceptance, or nearly so, in every suc- 
ceeding generation, can only be accounted for, I con- 
ceive, on the supposition that it is quite in accordance 
with the nature of man; and the correspondence of this 
belief with the sense of mankind, in all circumstances 
and in all ages, affords a strong presumption of its 
truth. 

Or, if recourse is had, in explanation, to something 
in the constitution of man’s nature which leads him to 
the conception of such an idea—to a kind of moral in- 
stinct which prompts him to recognize and worship a 
superior power — does not this innate propensity accord 
with the supposition of the existence of a Creator, who, 
for wise and benevolent purposes, wrought the feeling 
into the very texture of his nature, rather than with that 


i# 


LECT. {.] PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. 23 


which supposes it to be a universal fallacy, leading to 
no good, but producing debasement and misery.* 

Or, if the belief be referred to reason, and it be sup- 
posed an error of the judgment, is it not a most inexpli- 
cable aud unparalleled phenomenon, that nearly all 
men, in all times and places, should, without any com- 
mon consent, have fallen into a similar error? 

The author of the ‘System of Nature’ endeavors to 
obviate the difficulty we are noticing, not by denying 
the fact of universal belief, but by assigning it to causes 
which he supposes compatible with this system. Ac- 
cording to him, its origin is to be traced to the igno- 
rance and fear of man, while in a rude state of barba- 
rism. “It was in the lap of,ignorance, in the season 
of alarm, that mankind ever formed their first notions 
of the Divinity.”+ “If the gods of nations had their 


* So strong is this innate tendency to acknowledge and wor- 
ship a superior power, that man has, by some philosophers, been 
quaintly defined as a “religious animal.” And if there really 
existed no proper object of worship, would not this be a singular 
exception to all the capabilities and propensities of our nature? 
For every sense, for every faculty, for every desire or appetite, 
whether of the mind or body, there is an appropriate object. 
There are forms and colors for the visual organs, sounds for 
the ears, food for the cravings of hunger, knowledge to satisfy 
curiosity, and friends for all our social affections; but, if for this 
innate propensity, found wherever the human race exists, there 
were no object,—nothing but a monstrous and injurious fiction,— 
how strange would be such an anomaly, such a solitary exception 
in man’s nature! 


¢ System of Nature. — Vol. II. p. 14. 


24 PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS, [LECT I. 


birth in the bosom of alarm, it was again in that of de- 
spair that each individual formed the unknown power, 
that he made exclusively for himself.”* The causes of 
this terror, either ‘‘general or local,” are stated to be 
“physical disasters, dreadful catastrophes,” such as “ in- 
undations,” “ conflagrations,” and “ frightful volcanoes.” t 
And in individual cases, man’s “ diseases, his troubles, 
his passions, his inquietude, the painful alterations his 
frame underwent, without his being able to fathom the 
true causes.” The author just quoted has devoted a 
whole chapter to an inquiry into “the origin of man’s 
ideas of the Divinity,’ in which, with many truths 
which no one questions, there is mixed up a large por- 
tion of gratuitous assumption and erroneous statement, 
the whole of which is pronounced with the boldness of 
oracular decision. A slight examination, however, 
will be sufficient to show that the atheistic philosopher 
has not succeeded in his attempts to account for the 
general tendency of the human mind to believe in the 
existence of a superior power. 

That the alarm produced by tempests, volcanic erup- 
tions, earthquakes, and such terrific phenomena, first or 
principally suggested the notion of a Divinity, is an as- 
sertion completely destitute of proof, which, neither a 
reference to our feelings, nor to the history of the hu- 
man race, will justify. Such appearances, indeed, strike 
us with awe, and produce a feeling of human weak- 
ness and comparative insignificance ; but they are only 


* System of Nature.—Vol. II. p. 16, 17. t Vot. II. p. 12, 13. 


LECT. I.] PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. 25 


of rare occurrence. Do not the emotions of wonder, 
admiration, and gratitude, as involuntarily and far more 
frequently rise in the mind, when the more constant op- 
erations of nature are observed? Do not the sublimi- 
ties, the beauties, the beneficent arrangements,and the 
admirable regularity which wesee around us, as certainly 
conduct our minds to the conclusion that infinite wisdom 
and power preside over universal nature, as any occa- 
sional “ physical disaster?”’? The annals of the human 
race are perfectly in correspondence with this: we find 
that the first objects of polytheistic idolatry were the sun, 
the moon, the stars, the powers of nature, and illustrious 
men; objects of beauty and splendor, or from which 
benefits had been received or were expected. This our 
author subsequently admits,* and adds these causes to 
the “dreadful catastrophes” before mentioned. It was 
not, then, to “ alarm,’ and “ terror,” and “ despair,” that 
“the first notion of a Divinity” owed its origin, as, in 
the course of things, many “benefits” must have been re- 
ceived, and much good long enjoyed, before these “ ca- 
tastrophes”’ and ills could happen. But to whatever 
origin the idea of a Divinity is to be-assigned, our phi- 
losopher certainly leaves the question as open and 
unanswered as ever, — how it was that in the view of 
what was terrific, or splendid, or regular and useful in 
nature, nations should universally have agreed to ac- 
knowledge a power controlling and directing all its en- 
ergies. If it be replied that man, beholding the opera- 


* System of Nature.— Vol. II. p. 28. 


26 PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. [LECT. I. 


tions of nature, transferred to some invisible being the 
properties of his own mind,* this is but saying, that 
perceiving the power of an invisible something within 
him, and its capability of producing effects to a certain 
extent on all surrounding objects, he judged that, on a 
larger scale, some unseen power, analogous, but im- 
mensely superior to his own mind, produced those stu- 
pendous effects in nature; that, as no orderly disposi- 
tion, productive of convenience or comfort, in his own 
little economy, was effected without contrivance, so, to 
account for all the marvellous exhibitions of arrange- 
ment in the course of nature, on which his existence 
and happiness depended, he concluded that there must 
be some mighty agency, working with purpose and de- 
sign. In this way, we admit, men have reasoned,—in 
this way they still reason; and it is, we believe, a mode 
of reasoning which all the ingenuity of infidelity will 
find it difficult to gainsay or resist. 

But the author already quoted affirms, that it is man’s 
ignorance of natural causes which leads him thus to 
feel and reason; all the awe, the admiration, the grati- 
tude which have inspired the human bosom, and prompt- 
ed the recognition and worship of a superior being, 
have their rise in ignorance. “In the remote ages of 
the world,” mankind were “savages dispersed, erratic, 
thinly scattered up and down, (who) knew the course 
of nature, either very imperfectly, or not at all.” “All 
natural causes were mysterious to our wandering ances 


* System of Nature. — Vol. II. p. 18. 


LECT. I.] PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. 27 


tors; the entire of nature was an enigma to them; all 
its phenomena were marvellous; every event inspired 
terror to beings who were destitute of experience; al- 
most every thing they saw must have appeared to them 
strange, unusual, contrary to their idea of the order of 
things.”* To the terror and the wonder resulting from 
ignorance, every thought which had reference to a De- 
ity is referred. Then the conclusion naturally is, that 
his knowledge of “physical causes” would as certainly 
correct the error, and lead him to infer that there is no 
invisible, superior power. But this is contrary to fact; 
what mind, not previously disposed to infidelity, ever 
came to a conclusion against the being of a God, from 
the knowledge of the wonders of nature’s operations ? 
Have not the most original and independent thinkers, 
those who have been most patient, and sober, and labo- 
rious, and successful, in their investigations of nature, 
been confirmed, by their enlarged views and astonishin g 
discoveries, in the belief of a Supreme Creator of the 
universe?+ And what is there in these new ideas of 
‘natural causes,” which contradicts the conclusion to 
which the mind unacquainted with them has arrived? 
In what do the philosopher and the uninformed _pea- 
sant differ in their views of nature? Principally in 
this, that the one perceives a few more links in the 


* System of Nature. — Vol. II. p. 10. 
+ See a most excellent chapter in Mr. Whewell’s Bridgewater 


Treatise, ‘On Inductive Habits; or, on the Impression produced 
on Men’s Minds, by discovering Laws of Nature.’ p. 303. 


28 PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. [LECT al: 


chain than the other, while both are obliged to have 
recourse to a power which supports the whole. The 
one may call the thunder the voice of God, that is, 
the immediate effect of his power; the other traces 
it to the electric fluid; but when he arrives at this 
point he finds himself in the same condition as the 
peasant. Whencethis mysterious and generally invisi- 
ble power, that pervades all nature, and which, even in 
its most terrific exhibitions, is accomplishing important 
benefits for man,—who prescribed to it those laws 
which harmonize it so completely with the system of 
which it forms a part, —and who guides and controls 
this mighty, but unconscious agent ? He comes to the 
same conclusion as the other, and is compelled to resolve 
it, after all his reasonings, into the power and wisdom of 
a great first cause. 

The whole amount, then, of the attempt to account 
for this general belief, so far from proving anything in 
favor of atheism, is but a concession that such is the 
constitution of man, that whatever objects he beholds in 
nature, awful or glorious, displaying power or benefi- 
cent arrangement, his mind is led to the conclusion that 
they are the works of a wise, good, and powerful being ; 
in other words, that there exists a God.* 


* In a subsequent chapter of the ‘System of Nature,’ the at- 
tempt is further made to evade the force of this argument. “ Are 
not nearly all the inhabitants of the earth imbued with the idea 
of magic ; in the habit of acknowledging occult powers; given 
to divination ; believers in enchantment; the slaves to omens; 
supporters of witchcraft; thoroughly persuaded of the existence 


y 
\ 
, 


LECT? +S!) PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. 29 


I therefore earnestly entreat those who have listened 
to the dictates of a sceptical philosophy, to consider 
whether it does not afford a strong presumption against 
their scheme, that it contradicts human nature ; that it is 
‘opposed to the general sense of mankind, and has been 
so in all ages of the world. 


of ghosts? If some of the most enlightened persons are cured 
of these follies, they still find very zealous partisans in the great- 
er number of mankind, who accredit them with the firmest con- 
fidence. It would not, however, be concluded, by men of sound 
sense, in many instances not by the theologian himself, ( ! ) that, 
therefore, these chimeras actually have existence, although sanc- 
tioned with the credence of the multitude.” — Vol. II. p. 154. 
But there is this important difference between the belief in the 
existence of a God, and in “ witchcraft ;” the progress of knowledge 
detects the fallacies of the one, and confirms the truth of the oth- 
er. ‘ Magic,” “occult powers,” “ divination,” have, in our land, 
long become defunct; “ omens” and “ witcheraft” are regarded as 
“old wive’s fables,” and scarcely “a ghost” is ever heard of, ex- 
cept in the mountains of Wales, or the Highlands of Scotland; 
and even from these places, their last retreat, they are likely soon 
to be driven. While the advance of knowledge, instead of dis- 
pelling from the mind the idea of a Supreme Being, only sets it 
in a stronger light; and every new wonder which the extension 
of science discovers, affords additional proof, not only to the 
minds of “theologians,” but to those of the great majority of 
“men of sound sense,” that there is an all-wise, benevolent, and 
powerful being, who presides over all nature as its great author. 
At the same time it isa problem whichatheism will find very dif- 
ficult of solution, how the impression on the mind, of an invisible 
world, a future state, and the immortality of the soul, became so 
general as the mistakes alluded to suppose. Again ; “ Before 
Copernicus, there was no one who did not believe the Earth was 


30 PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS, ILEGT 1. 


To which we may add, as something worthy of re- 
mark, and at the same time incapable of contradiction, 
that at those seasons and in those circumstances when 
men think most soberly, the conviction of the existence 
of a Supreme Being, and of their responsibility to him, 
is most powerfully felt. If this impression existed only 
in the height of excitement, if its strength were greatest 
when prejudice and passion had their full sway; if, on 
the other hand, in seasons of retirement, if, when 
affliction had sobered down the passions, and the pros- 
pect of quitting forever this present scene had abated, 
if not destroyed, the prejudices of the mind, this belief 
were generally found to fade or weaken into hesitancy 


stationary, that the Swn described his annual revolution round 
it; was, however, this universal consent of man upon a principle 
of astronomical science, which endured for so many thousand 
years, less an error on that account.”—Vol. II. p. 154,155. Pass- 
ing over the inaccuracy of the author as to historical fact, it may 
again be replied, that further knowledge of nature corrected this 
error, while increasing knowledge only strengthened the belief 
of a Supreme Being. But how completely irrelevant is the pro- 
duction of such instances, and how unworthy the name of philos- 
ophy! Toprove that mankind always felt and reasoned wrong- 
ly, evidence is adduced of the imperfection of their sense. Be- 
cause the sight is not the means of judging of the true magnitude 
of objects, or of distinguishing between real and apparent motion, 
therefore every moral feeling, and every mode of reasoning in 
which mankind have, in all ages, coincided, may be wrong! 
Our philosopher might as well say that, because all the world, for 
many ages, thought water to be a simple element, therefore their 
universal consent as to the difference between truthand falsehood, 
right and wrong, virtue and vice, may, after all, be nothing but a 
blunder ! 


LECT. 1.] PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. 31 


and doubt, the presumption which such a change would 
seem to afford against the truth of this belief, would be 
triumphantly brought forward by the advocates of in- 
fidelity. But it is well known that the very reverse of 
this is the case; that if ever, with men in general, or 
with the truly pious and devout, this conviction loses 
any of its strength or influence, it is amidst the bustle 
of life, the collision of interests, and the power of pas- 
sion. When retired from the world, when, though in 
the full vigor of the mental powers, the great change is 
contemplated, generally speaking, this feeling deepens, 
this conviction irresistibly takes hold of the mind. 
When is it, on the contrary, that infidel principles have 
their greatest sway? Is it not in the riot of dissipation, 
the headlong pursuit of wealth and power, the strife of 
ambition, and the excitement produced by bold and 
daring companions? And does it not frequently 
happen that in retirement, in the silence of night, in the 
chamber of affliction, the infidel hesitates, doubts, and 
trembles; and that, in the prospect of death, he is glad 
to avail himself of church services or Christian prayers ! 

The advocates of infidelity feel the pressure of this 
difficulty, and endeavor to extricate their system by 
alleging the failure of the animal powers, the weakness 
of the brain, and the decay of the intellect. This is, 
however, but a poor shift. Does the retiring from 
bustle and tumult, does the subsiding of the passions 
into calmness, or the sobering down of the spirits so as 
to allow the judgment to have its undisturbed opera- 
tion, enfeeble the intellect, or disqualify it for the per- 


ae PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. [LECT. I. 


céption of tiuth? It is an undeniable fact, that, not 
uncommonly, amidst considerable pain and weakness, 
or when very near the point of dissolution, and in the 
full apprehension of it, the mind retains its entire 
power, and is able to think, converse, and reason, with 
all its accustomed precision. And these are the cases 
and circumstances to which we refer, in which infidel- 
ity is commonly seen to be as destitute of truth, as it is 
of power to support and cheer the mind, and when the 
aid of religion, formerly neglected or despised, is in- 
voked. We may be reminded of infidels who have 
died as they lived, and passed out of life with a bravado 
or a joke on their dying lips: we speak of cases which 
are common, and which will, I believe, be found to be 
general, in which the solution which infidelity offers 
will not apply. Is not this fact, then, enough to throw 
suspicion on a system which not only fails in the hour 
of trial, but which so commonly loses its hold on the 
mind, in proportion to the seriousness and sobriety 
with which it is disposed to view every great question ? 

In this class of arguments we may rank the moral 
phenomena attending the existence of atheistic princi- 
ples. What is the soil in which atheism delights to 
grow; what is the aliment on which it feeds? Is it 
moral rectitude—is it virtue—is it purity of heart? 
Are these the qualities in which infidelity takes its 
rise,—is its power deepened in proportion to their 
increase, and weakened as they decline? Are scepti- 
cism and virtue so closely allied, that the advance or 
retreat of the one may generally be ascertained by that 


LOT, 1.) PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. 33 


ofthe other? Lask the most determined advocates of the 
system which I am combating, whether their own ob- 
servation has not shown them that the very reverse of 
this is the case? What exhibition of character has 
generally marked the transition to and from infidelity 2 
And how has the standard of morals been affected by 
it? Is it not a well-known fact, that when a youth 
who has been brought up in habits of piety and virtue 
embraces sentiments of this kind, a visible deterioration 
of morals follows? Does he feel himself bound by 
the same restraints of sobriety, chastity, and temperance 
as before? Instead of this, do we not generally see 
the reins thrown on the neck of indulgence and passion, 
as far as circumstances will allow? To whom is 
atheism so welcome as to the most flagitious, and 
debauched, and unprincipled? And the return from 
vice to virtue is as generally marked by a deeper con- 
viction of the existence and government of a Supreme 
Intelligence, and with a belief in the retributions of a 
future state. I do not say, however, that immorality of 
conduct, in every case, attends the adoption of these 
sentiments; much less would I be understood as 
making such an accusation against my sceptical towns- 
men; many causes may considerably modify and re- 
strain the influence of opinion on conduct ;—I speak of 
their general tendency and result, which have been 
such as to produce, on the minds of all who have had 
opportunity of observing, an assurance that infidelity 
is, ina very high degree, unfavorable to the interests of 
morality. 

I know I shall be met here with an objection, drawn 

¥ 3 


as sh 


a) i ‘i 


34 PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. [LECT. I. 


from the conduct of Christians; and I readily, though 
with deep regret, acknowledge that the great majority 
of Christians in name have done no honor to Chris- 
tianity, that amongst them may be found instances of 
the greatest villany and the grossest vice. But does 
Christianity sanction the misconduct of wicked men, 
who are called by its name,—does it not renounce them, 
and pronounce on them its severest condemnation? If 
men will pretend to Christianity, who neither trust its 
promises nor obey its precepts, whose whole life is at 
variance with its spirit, shall their insincerity be charg- 
ed on. a religion which they insult and dishonor? 
Why should it thus be identified with persons whom it 
utterly disclaims? It has been the necessary result of 
national establishments of Christianity, that all who are 
born within certain geographical boundaries bear the 
Christian name; by the great majority of such persons, 
its principles are neither appreciated nor understood ; 
nothing is known of it but a few outward forms, a few 
articles of a creed but seldom thought of, and a few 
sentences of prayers, repeated, almost mechanically, at 
certain seasons. The existence and perfections of God, 
with all the solemn and glorious facts of which revyela- 


tion speaks, rarely occupy their minds, and still more 


Tarely influence their conduct. We do notacknowledge 
the Christianity of such, we charge them with practi- 
cal infidelity, who thus “ have the form of godliness, 
but deny its power.” There is, then, this important 
difference ; among nominal Christians immorality pre- 
vails because the great principles of religion are seldom 
thought of, and have not been received with that 


LECT. I.] PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. . oO 


sincerity and seriousness which would render them in- 
fluential; it is not because they believe that an all- 
seeing God has his eye continually upon them, and 
holds them responsible for their conduct, but because 
they lose sight of the important fact, and act in a way 
inconsistent with its belief; but it is not because atheists 
lose sight of the great article of their belief, or rather 
of their disbelief, that they become vicious or immoral. 
The immoralities of nominal Christians arise from 
their want of Christianity. It will not, I presume, be 
said, that the vicious conduct of atheists arises from the 
want of infidelity. . 

Atheism has seldom had an opportunity of showing 
all its features and exerting all its power. For once, 
however, it appeared in full length exhibition, and had 
ample scope for all its energies. It arose, like man’s 
evil genius, amidst the thunders, and the storms, and 
the earthquakes of the French revolution; its appear- 
ance was the signal for anarchy and wild uproar; it 
let loose all the fierce and pent-up passions of man’s 
depravity, subverted the very foundations of morality, 
uprooted the social system, and threatened to sweep 
away all the institutions and the virtues of society from 
the face of the land. But the spectre was too horrible 
to be endured; the philosophical magicians shrunk 
from the spirit which their own sorceries had raised ; 
the fickle nation, satiated with the riot of their own 
licentiousness, grew weary of the frightful power under 
whose auspices they had run to every excess; and the 
infamous Robespierre came forward to lay the fiend, 
and, ina public assembly, to compromise for the past 


36 PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. [LECT. I. 


frenzy of the people, by an oration, and a grand féte in 
honor of the Supreme Being.* : 

At this period, France was certainly in a state of 
great political excitement, but the instance adduced 
proves, I think, beyond doubt, that atheism was thought 
and felt to be far more congenial to the unbounded 
licentiousness of that period than any form of religion, 
or the mere admission of the existence of a God. It is 
undeniably true, that atheism offers an asylum from the 
persecutions of an outraged conscience, and a complete 
indemnity from the punishments of a future state: it 
must, then, ever present temptations to any one who 
longs to be free from the restraints of a Supreme Gov- 
ernor, and who dreads the responsibilities of a life to 
come. All our opinions on moral or religious subjects 
are greatly influenced by the state of the heart. We 
are seldom so completely intellectual in our decisions 
of this kind as we may imagine: when a man strongly 


* This féte was held on the 20th of the month Prairal, in the 
second year of the French Republic, that is, the 9th.of June, 
1794, and the ceremonies, I believe, took place in the Champ de 
la Reunion. A discourse was pronounced by Robespierre, as 
President of the National Convention, beginning thus—- The 
auspicious day is, at length, arrived, which the French people 
consecrate to the Great Supreme,” &c. It seems that, after this 
oration, some effigy or symbol of atheism was cast into the fire, 
and a second oration was pronounced by the President, just at 
the time when atheism disappeared and some representation of 
Wisdom was exhibited to the people, commencing in this way : 
—“ The monster, which the genius of kings vomited on France, 
is now annihilated; with it may the crimes and misfortunes of 
the world disappear,” &c. 


LECT. 1.] PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. 37 


wishes anything to be true, he is already half way to- 
. wards the belief of it.* While, therefore, a man ofa 
weak mind, but strong passions, may seek refuge from 
the accusations of conscience in the rites of superstition ; 
he who is of a speculative turn, with a bold and daring 
disposition, and a heart reluctant to submit to the moral 
government of God, will be more likeiy at once to cut 
the knot, and to release himself from the annoyance of 
conscience, by embracing the tenets of infidelity. I do 
not say that it is exactly and exclusively by this process 
that the mind always arrives at such a result; its move- 
ments are often a complete riddle; but it is a natural, 
and, I believe, not unfrequent process, which is suffi- 
cient to account for the existence of infidelity, without 
the supposition of more than usual discernment, and a 
superiority to vulgar prejudices. Is it not sufficient to 
pervert the reason and to stifle the conscience of any 
man, that he should feel it to be necessary to his peace 
to deny his responsibility to a Supreme Being? Such 
being the moral phenomena attending the existence of 
atheism, and such the means by which it may gain pos- 
session of the mind, I submit to your consideration 
whether they are not sufficient, independent of any oth- 
er proof, to throw a suspicion on its truth, 

Here, then, we close our first lecture, and, in con- 
cluding, I earnestly and affectionately intreat you, my 
unbelieving hearers, who favor the atheistic scheme, to 
consider, with seriousness and candor, what has already 


*“Feré libenter homines id, quod volunt, credunt.”—Cesar, 
de Bel. Gal. lib. 3, § XVIIL 


38 PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. [LECT. I. 


been advanced. Do not say there has been no direct 
proof, no attempted demonstration of the existence of a 
God; this has not been our intention in this lecture, we 
reserve it to a further stage of the discussion. But, if I 
mistake not, a strong case has already been made out 
against the system which we oppose. We have shown 


that there is no possible source of information, from — 


which an atheist can derive certainty that there is not a 
Supreme Creator and Governor of the universe ;— 
that the general sense and reason of mankind have al- 
ways been against him, a fact which atheism can neither 
deny nor explain;—that in those seasons when the 
mind is in the most favorable condition for the percep- 
tion of moral truth, it is generally the farthest from this 
form of infidelity, which, in its moral bearings, is such 
as to make every lover of his kind tremble at the very 
idea of its prevalence. Now, I appeal to your reason, 
to your conscience, whether these are not strong pre- 
sumptions against the system which you have espoused? 
I most solemnly intreat you to consider wellthe ground 
on which you stand, to review the steps by which you 
have advanced, to inquire impartially whether a fond- 
ness for speculation, a love of singularity, a desire to be 
released from the restraints which the belief in a holy, 
omniscient, and all-powerful Being imposes ;—wheth- 
er, in a word, other influences than a love of truth and 
a submission to evidence, may not have led to the 
adoption and maintenance of sentiments, at which the 
most sober and rational part of the community shudder. 

Let us be thankful, my Christian brethren, that those 
hopes which cheer our hearts, and light up our future 


Cer a 


LECT. I.] PRESUMPTIVE PROOFS. 39 


prospects with glory and immortality, do not rest on an 
hypothesis which is incapable of proof; that we have 
all the evidence which is consistent with a state of pro- 
bation of those sublime verities which inspire both our 
awe and our confidence; that in the history of the past 
and a view of the present, in the researches of antiquity 
and in the discoveries of science, in the regular course 
of nature and in its’ occasional and miraculous devia- 
tions, in the testimony of friends and the concessions of 
enemies, we have undoubted assurance that “the Lord 
he is God, it is he that hath made us, and not we our- 
selves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pas- 
ture.” Let us rejoice that, while we contemplate the 
unbounded magnificence of his works, we can exclaim, 
“this God is our God, for ever and ever ;” “who spoke 
in times past to the fathers, by the prophets,” but who 
“hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son ;’— 
that “life and immortality are brought to light by the 
gospel,” which “is the power of God unto salvation, to 
every one that believeth.” 


a 


LECTURE It. 


ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES EXAMINED. 


JOHN xvi. 38. — “‘ WHAT IS TRUTH 2’? 


Tus was the language of the Roman governor to 
Jesus, when he was brought before him as a prisoner 
by the Jews. What was the precise view of Pilate 
in asking this question, it is not easy to determine— 
whether he inquired judicially or philosophically. He 
may have meant simply, what is the truth respecting 
the charges brought against thee? Though it is more 
generally, I believe, supposed that, as there had been 
many disputes concerning truth, by the philosophers of 
that day, he wished the opinion of so distinguished a 
teacher, on this point. But, whatever may have been 
the particular view of Pilate, the inquiry is highly in- 
teresting, when applied to any branch of knowledge 
connected with our well-being. The governor of 


i ay 


—— so 


LECT. I1.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 41 


Judea did not, however, appear to be very earnest 
about the matter, for, having proposed the question, 
“he went out,” without waiting for an answer. This 
is too often the case; men’s prejudices, or worldly in- 
terests, or idleness, too often render them indifferent, or 
prevent them from taking proper measures to obtain 
the truth. In the inquiry on which we have entered, 
_ indifference must be in the highest degree criminal; if 
there is any doubt in the mind as to the existence of a 
Supreme Creator and Governor of the universe, no 
pains can be too great, no labor excessive, which may 
be employed in endeavoring to ascertain the truth. 

In the preceding lecture we showed the unspeakable 
importance of the subject ; and, having noticed the state 
of the great question at issue, we produced some pre- 
sumptive proofs which bear strongly against the truth 
of atheism. We now advance to another stage of the 
argument. Wherever we look we are surrounded with 
wonders; whether we view the heavens above or the 
earth beneath, the sea or the dry land, things animate 
or inanimate. We see grandeur which awes, and 
beauty which delights; masses of such a magnitude, 
and motions so marvellously extensive, that our. minds 
are overwhelmed; and bodies and movements so exqui- 
sitely fine and delicate, as to set all imitation by human 
skill at defiance. Wesee the most perfect order amidst 
boundless diversity ; and a most surprising complexity 
of parts, and means, and agencies, each complete in 
itself, combining to accomplish one object, as though 
animated by perfect intelligence, and working out that 
end with the greatest precision. In viewing this scene 


* 


42 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


of wonders, the mind asks, whence all this regularity, 

this adaptation, this provision? Who formed and put 

together this machinery? The general sense of man- 

kind refers the whole to a great First Cause, of infinite 

power and wisdom; the atheistic scheme resolves all 

into nature, that is, it excludes an intelligent being from 

the formation of the world, and affirms, that it is only 
by the unconscious powers of the material universe, that 

all things are made and preserved. Here, then, we 

join issue. 

But, before we proceed farther, let one of the high 
priests of scepticism describe in his own words the senti- 
ments of naturalism, that is, of the atheistic philosophy. 
“He (1. e. an atheist) is a thinker, who, having medita- 
ted upon matter, its energies, its properties, its mode of 
acting, hath no occasion to invent ideal powers, to recur 
to imaginary systems, in order to explain the phenomena 
of the universe, to develop the operations of nature; 
who needs not creatures of the imagination, which, far 
from making him better understand nature, do not more 
than render it wholly inexplicable, an unintelligible 
mass, useless to the happiness of mankind.”* He far- 
ther represents them as “men without enthusiasm ; 
who are guided by experience; who follow the evidence 
of their senses; who see nothing in nature but what 


they find actually to have existence, or that which they — 


are capacitated to know; who neither do, nor can = 
ceive anything but matter, essentially active, moveable, 
diversely combined, in the full enjoyment of various - 
properties, capable of producing all the beings who dis- 


* System of Nature—Vol. IL. p. 503. ae : 


mn) : 
al y> 
tie 


) 


LECT. I1.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 43 


play themselves to our visual faculties.*** Natural phi- 
losophers, who are convinced that, without recurring to 
chimerical causes, they can explain everything, simply 
by the laws of motion; by the relation subsisting be- 
tween beings; by their affinities; by their analogies; 
by their aptitude to attraction; by their repulsive pow- 
ers; by their proportions; by their combinations; by 
their decomposition.” * 

That the admission of an intelligent First Cause will 
account for all the phenomena of nature, is too obvious 
to need a remark; and that we are compelled to have 
recourse to this, I hope satisfactorily to prove; but here 
it is assumed that the whole can be explained, without 
supposing any presiding intelligence, by the known 
properties of matter. Nothing can exceed the confi- 
dence with which these pretensions are advanced: it 
will be our business, in this lecture, to subject them to 
the test of investigation. Let us, in the first place, take 
a compendious view of the task which atheism has to 
perform. 

Without entering largely into the subject of an ensu- 
ing lecture, the following may be considered as a brief 
sketch of what is demanded of any hypothesis which 
excludes a Creator. It has so much to explain, with 
reference to the human race, to show us, from the mere 
properties of matter, how man is what he is, in his body 
and his mind. The elements of his material structure 
have nothing peculiar in them; they are just the same 
as exist in other bodies, in different proportions and 


combinations. The bones, the muscles, the blood, may 
ay 


Ss * Vol. IL. 518, 519. 


44 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


all be reduced to their primary elements, and every par- 
ticle of the human frame may again enter into the com- 
position of other bodies, organized or unorganized. And 
yet these elementary particles make a structure compos- 
ed of a number of distinct machines, and chemical ap- 
paratus, pervaded by that mysterious principle which 
we call vital power, and all working to one end. It 
has, then, to show how, from the earths, and acids, and 
alkalies, and other kindred substances which abound 
in nature, sucha being as man could be first originated ; 
by what “relations,” « affinities,” “analogies,” such 
combinations and selections should be made as consti- 
tute each particular organ or limb—an eye, an ear, or 
hand, for. instance—and how all the muscular and 
glandular formations, with the secretive, digestive, and 
circulating apparatus, should happen to unite in one in- 
dividual, and form a system of numberless adaptations, 
without the interference of any intelligent being, with 
wisdom to plan and power to execute. It has also to 
account for the mental phenomena, exhibiting wonders 
as great as those which external nature presents, if not 
surpassing them all; and to show us how, from material 
properties, could result the power of consciousness, 
memory, imagination; the capability of soaring in 
thought above nature, and beyond time; of generalizing, 
abstracting, and reasoning, in a manner the most acute 
and profound. Nor is this all; it has to account for 
the existence of a pair of human beings, coeval with 
each other, without which there could not have been a 
second generation. 

In addition to this, the atheistic philosophy must ex- 


i 


LECT It.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 45 


plain, without reference to thought or plan, the existence 
of innumerable tribes of creatures, in the air, and earth, 
and seas ;—all possessing the most wonderful adaptation 
of parts, and properties, and instincts, to their peculiar 
mode of living,—and all existing by pairs! 

It must also furnish a solution to all the fitting up, 
and furniture; all the provisions, conveniences, and em- 
bellishments of this place of man’s abode; how it came 
to pass so marvellously, that the soils, the minerals, and 
the plants;—the air, the water, the sea, the tides, the 
dews, and rains;—that the days, the nights, the sum- 
mers, and the winters, are just what a wise and power- 
ful being might have made for man, though no one 
made these things, nor planned them,—that there was 
no design at all in them! 

It has, moreover, to expound to us, how all the plan- 
ets and their secondaries came into being, and were ar- 
ranged into one system; how their forces were adjusted 
with a precision so marvellous as to insure the most as- 
tonishing regularity; and how, in a word, without any 
design or plan, ten thousand wonders of beauty, and 
order, and utility exist, just as though they were pro- 
duced by the most wise and benevolent intention. This 
is but a very brief and slight sketch of what atheism has 
to perform. Let us examine the means by which it pro- 
poses to accomplish it. 7 

The speculations of an imaginative philosophy, to ac- 
count for the existence of the world and all its phenom- 
ena, have been exceedingly various; ingenuity and tal- 
ent have expended a vast amount of effort in the con- 
struction of systems so to explain the origin of all 


46 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


things as to exclude a Creator from the universe. ‘'T'o 
enumerate all the wild conjectures, the absurd and fan- 
tastic fictions of these system-makers, would be a waste 
of time; whatever may be the modifications which their 
hypotheses may assume, we can conceive of three only 
by which an attempt can be made to account for the 
phenomena of nature, without admitting the creating 
power of a great First Cause. Either, first, that the 
world had a beginning without a maker. © Or, secondly, 
that it has existed as it is fromalleternity. Or, thirdly, | 
that matter only is eternal, and that all its forms and 
combinations arise from the essential properties which 
it possesses, 

That matter, with all its present modifications, had a 
commencement without a producing cause, involves an 
absurdity so gross and palpable, that it is doubtful wheth- 
er any have deliberately maintained such a position. 
For, if there.ever had been a period when nothing ex- 
isted, nothing, it is evident, could ever have existed. It 
is impossible to conceive of the commencement of exist- 
ence without a cause. That cause could not be in it- 
self; since that would suppose its existence before it did 
exist, in order to produce itself—which is a contradiction. 
It could not be in any other being, since it is supposed 
that no other being existed. It follows, then, undenia- 
bly, that something must have existed from eternity. 

We come, therefore, to the second hypothesis, that the 
whole system of nature has existed as it now is, from 
all eternity. ‘This supposes that the motions of the 
planets, the succession of summer and winter, of day 
and night, of vegetables, of animals, of the race of man, 


8 oi 


LECT. I1.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 47 


have been eternal.* Let me here beg attention to a few 
preliminary remarks, before we examine this hypothe- 
sis. Whatever exists, must exist either necessarily, or 
by some producing cause. There is no medium. It 
must have the ground or reason of its existence either 
in itself, or in some other being. That which exists 
necessarily must be self-existent and independent; that 
which exists in virtue, or by means of some other being, 
is contingent and dependent. N ecessary existence means 
that which cannot by any possibility be non-existent, or 
otherwise than it is. That which is eternal, must be 
self-existent, independent, uncaused, and necessary. The 
application of these remaks will, if I mistake not, show 
the unbounded absurdity of the hypothesis in question. 

The present form and series of productions, and races 
of living beings, never, according to this scheme, had a 
beginning; that is, they are all eternal, and therefore 
without a cause, self-existent, independent, and necessa- 
ty. Now, observe whither these premises will carry us, 
Trees, plants, animals, are all in their respective series 
eternal, and consequently necessary, self-existent, and 
independent. If, therefore, the series be self-existent 
and necessary, every part which goes to compose it 
must partake of the same quality; every individual plant, 
or tree, or man, must, therefore, be self-existent and ne- 


* This was maintained by some of the ancient philosophers, 
and appears to have been the opinion of the author of the ‘ An- 
swer to Dr. Priestley’s Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever.’ 
“We ought to argue only from experience; and experience 
would teach us that the species of all animals has eternally existed.” 
—p. 45, 


: e | 
48 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


cessary. But every individual of each series has a cause 
of its existence, is produced by another, and is dependent 
and contingent. Therefore, every individual is at the 
same time dependent and independent—self-existent and 
produced—necessary and contingent, which is absurd. 
If it be replied, that though each individual is depend- 
ent and contingent, yet the whole series may be inde- 
pendent and necessary, we ask, what is it which. gives 
to anything its essential qualities, but the parts of which 
it is composed? T'o suppose that any number of depen- 
dent and contingent beings can make up a self-existent 
and independent whole, is as absurd as to say that an 
infinite number of dead bodies would make up a living 
mass, or that the continued addition of nothing to noth- 
ing would make something. To assert that every in- 
dividual in a series has a beginning, and yet that the 
series had no beginning, is an insult to the understand- 
ing, which nothing but an inordinate attachment to a 
favorite hypothesis would for a moment tolerate. 

And, farther, that cannot be infinite which has parts. 
For, to suppose that infinite in space which is composed 
of parts, would be to suppose it infinite and finite at the 
same time; since every part must have form and limit, 
and that in which there is no part that is not limited, 
must also be limited. In like manner, that cannot be 
infinite in duration which is made up of parts, since 
every part must have some point at which it commences, 
some point at which it ends: here then are distinctly 
limits to every part; and that in which there is no part 
that is not limited, and therefore finite, cannot be other- 
wise than limited and finite. Now, the eternal series 


——————— 


LECT. I1.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESEs. 49 © 


which the atheist supposes would, if such could exist, 
be an infinite number of parts; but, whatever consists of 
parts is but an aggregate, a multiplication, of such parts, 
a continued repetition of one single part. ‘Therefore, 
since this infinite series has no single part which is not 
limited and finite, it must itself be limited and finite. 
But an atheist may object that he does not apply the 
term infinite to this series; he only says that it has had 
ho commencement, but has forever continued to flow 
on in one uninterrupted course. Be it so; we shall not 
quarrel about terms. It amounts to precisely the same 
thing, since, whether the series is said to be infinite, or 
without beginning, itis still composed of individual parts, 
can have no property but the accumulated properties of 
its parts, yet must have every property which pervades 
its parts. And, therefore, if every part has had a com- 
mencement, there can be no part that has not had a 
commencement; and to say, that while every part has 
had a commencement, yet the series itself has had no 
commencement, is as revolting an absurdity as can well 
be uttered, : 

Again :—that which is eternal can have nothing be- 
fore it: there cannot be two eternities of different lengths. 
But, if “all things continue as they were,” the planetary 
movements, and the annual and diurnal motions of the 
earth must be eternal. Now, at no given place are the 
day and the night simultaneous; one must precede the 
other. Assign the order of precedence to which you 
please, and every twelve hours there will have been a 
greater number of the one than of the other. Either 
the eternal series of days, or the eternal series of nights 


"50 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


has been the longer; one of them, therefore, cannot be 
eternal; unless two eternities can be of different lengths, 
which is absurd. If either of the series be supposed to 
be eternal, and not the other, it can only acquire this 
property by the addition of one: it would follow, then, 
that one, added to a finite number, would make it infinite ; 
and that the whole quality of infinity would depend on 
this unit. The same line of argument may be applied 
to the seasons, the lunations, the tides; and will show 
that it is impossible that what alternates can be eternal. 

There is only one point more to which I shall apply 
this mode of reasoning; it is to the existence of the hu- 
man race. Ifthe race of man has been eternal, his pro- 
duction and dissolution must be eternal. But his pro- 
duction must precede his dissolution ; therefore we arrive 
again at the absurdity of two eternities of different lengths. 
Nor is this all; for we know that all the particles which 
compose the human body are derived from that nutrition 
which comes primarily from the earth; they must, there- 
fore, have existed as food, before they entered into the 
composition of his body, and in the great store-house, 
the earth, before they formed those organized substances 
which compose his food: this makes an eternity ofa still 
different length. An hypothesis which involves con- 
tradictions so palpable and numerous, cannot be true, 
and ought not to be entertained for a moment.* 


* This kind of reasoning has sometimes been employed in the 
following manner against the hypothesis next examined, which, 
admitting that no form or combination of matter is eternal, yet 
maintains the existence of an eternal series of causes and effects. 
“ The universe,” says Mirabaud, “ is an immense chain of cau- 


LECT. IL] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 51 


But it is not by arguments of this kind only, that this 
hypothesis is refuted. Should any feel a difficulty in 
comprehending, or a reluctance in admitting reason- 
ings of so abstract and metaphysical a nature, we refer 
them to history and to science, for a contradiction to the 
Supposition that the world, as it now is, together with 
the human race, is eternal. The history of past ages, 
so far as its records have been transmitted to us, Show that 
whatever may have been the duration of the world, the 
race of man, at least, is of comparatively modern origin. 
As we become acquainted with the earliest histories ex- 


ses and effects, which flow without ceasing, the one from the 
other.”—System of Nature, Vol. 1. p. 89. Now, is it possible that 
there can be “a chain of causes and effects,” of any kind, “ flowing 
one from the other,” without a first link? If it is contended that 
in this chain there is no first link, then there has been an eternal 
series, every individual of which is dependent, and yet the whole 
is independent, which, as before observed, is absurd. Every link 
hangs on something, and yet the chain hangs on nothing! If it 
be replied, though we should admit a first cause, or, to continue 
the figure, a first link, still the difficulty- returns, what supports 
the first link? We answer, that by the admission of an Eternal 
Being, of necessary and independent existence, no such difficulty 
exists. We have, then, that which has necessary and indepen- 
dent existence supporting that which is contingent and dependent. 
If it be again said, the analogy fails, because a chain has an ex- 
ternal force, the power of gravity ever operating, rendering sup- 
port necessary, but that here is no external force; we reply, that 
the cause of dependence does not in the least affect the question ; 
an effect, from the very nature of its relation, is as much depen- 
dent on the preceding cause, as any link, by the force of gravity, 
is dependent ona preceding link. To suppose an uncaused series 
of things, every one of which iscaused, is an absurdity at which 
every unprejudiced mind revolts. 


e 


52 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. Il. 


-- tant, we feel ourselves carried back towards the infancy 
of human society. We can trace backwards the pro- 
cress of science, the advance of the arts, and the rise of 
‘inventions, to a time far enough within the limits which 
the Mosiac history assigns to the existence of man on 
this globe. It is not difficult to refer to periods, when 
every department of knowledge which bears on the im- 
provement of man was in a rude and incipient state. 
Can it be imagined that this would have been the case, 
if the race of man had existed on this globe from all eter- 
nity? Letany one consider the advance which has 
been made during the last century; or, if this be consid- 
ered a period too favorable to be selected, let him com- 
pare the state of the world two or three thousand years 
ago, as far as we have the means of comparison, with 
what it is now,—ask himself whether he can believe that 
the human mind had been working for millions and 
millions of ages, making experiments and gathering ex- 
perience, and had brought society no farther on, in the 
march of improvement and science, than it was when 
Priam reigned at Troy, or the Pelasgi wandered in 
Greece?* If it be said, that the various arts and sci- 


* Lucretius, though he attributes the formation of the world to 
the Epicurean atoms, introduces this argument to prove that the 
antiquity of the world is not great. 

“ Preterea, si nulla fuit genitalis origo 

Terrarum et coeli, semperque eterna fuere;” &e. 
De Rerum Natura, lib. 5, v. 325, &e. 

Again, I ask, if heaven and earth possess 

Uacaused existence, and eternal are, 

Why have not poets sung of deeds achieved 

Before the Theban war and fall of Troy? 


LECT. I1.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 53. 


ences may have existed in a high state of improvement, 
together with all the inventions of modern times, but 
that terrible catastrophes may have befallen the human 
race, or unfavorable circumstances arrested the career 
of improvement, and thrown it many ages back; we ask 
what monuments of these have been left? how is itthat . 
no vestiges of such a state of society have been discov- 
ered? But may not those terrific and general convul- 
sions, traces of which some have imagined they -have 
discovered in the several strata of the earth, have oblit- 
erated all such remains, and left posterity in utter igno- 
rance as to the condition of former residents on this 
_ globe? We reply, if these destructive crises were but 


Why fell so many brave, their deeds untold, 

- Nor live immortal in the roll of fame ? 
No, rather in its infancy is yet 
The world, nor long ago began its course. 
Hence ’tis that many an art but now expands, 
K’en now progressive: much is added still 
To navigation ; nor have minstrels long 
To harmony’s sweet sounds attuned the lyre; 
While nature and her laws but late are known, 
And I, among the first, now first am found, 
To teach the science in our native land. 


In a note on this place, Dr. Mason Good observes, “ This ar- 
gument against the eternity of the world, and an infinite series 
of successions in animal life, so strenuously contended for by 
Aristotle, is strictly logical and impressive. Macrobius has cop- 
ied and expanded it, in his book on the Dream of Scipio, 2, 10. 

‘Quis non hine existimet, mundum quandoque ccepisse, nec 
longam retro hujus etatem,’ &c. ‘ Who can believe otherwise 
than that the world had a beginning, and that, too, not long an- 
terior to the present age, since we have no Grecian narrative of 
any thing, not even of splendid actions, and events that occurred 


54 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


partial, and left a portion of the human race remaining, 
would not they have transmitted to their descendants a 
considerable portion of the improvements which had 
previously existed? If it be supposed that they were 
total, then the present race, at least, had a beginning, 
the series was broken, and cannot be eternal. 

Modern science also confirms the fact of man’s recent 
origin. Geology, as far as it may be regarded as a 
science, is of very modern date. Its object is to inves- 
tigate the surface of the globe, to mark the several strata 
which form its crust or shell, to arrange and classify 
the organic remains of the vegetable and animal king- 
doms, and to ascertain the changes to which, in the lapse 


earlier than two thousand years ago? Nothing worthy of notice, 
indeed, is recorded in any volume prior to the reign of Ninus, 
who is, by some, supposed to be the father of Semiramis. But 
if the world had existed from the beginning, or, in the language 
of the philosophers, even before the beginning, why, through an 
innumerable series of ages, was the present mode of life never 
once invented ? Why no discovery of the use of letters, which 
alone eternizes the memory of things? And why are some na- 
tions, even at this day, scarcely initiated into the knowledge 
of a variety of useful facts? Even the Gauls knew nothing 
of the cultivation of vines and olives, till after Rome had ac- 
quired the full vigor of her youth; and other people, even at 
this moment, are totally ignorant of the most eommon and bene- 
ficial inventions among ourselves; arguments that seem strongly 
to contradict the eternity of things, and compel us to believe that 
the world had a definite origin, and that all we are acquainted 
with arose progressively afterwards.”—Translation of Lucretius, 
by Dr. Mason Good, Vol. IT. p. 262. Grotius has also added sev- 
eral testimonies to the same point, from Virgil, Horace, Pliny, 
Seneca, Tacitus, &c. De veritate Religionis Christiane, L. 1, 
SH: 


LECT. I1.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 55 


of ages, it has been subject. It has already afforded 
much information of a curious and surprising nature, 
not only respecting the concentric layers of rocky sub- 
stance which envelope this globe, the disruptions which 
they have apparently suffered, and the minerals of which | 
they are the depositories; but also. concerning animals — 
of various kinds and sizes, which oncetenanted this earth, 
the races of which are now become extinct. Now, ev- 
ery theory which is built on geological facts assumes, 
as one of its first principles, the commencement of the 
earth in its present state. Geologists may differ in their 
speculations concerning the primeval condition of the 
earth, whether it was a fluid mass, or a mere expanded 
nebulosity; whether the principal agent in producing 
the successive changes which brought it to its present 
state was fire or water; whether these changes were 
more or less sudden or gradual, at longer or shorter 
intervals, and accomplished more or less by secondary 
causes; but all agree in assigning to it a commence- 
ment in that condition in which it could be inhabited 
by man, and in considering that period to be not very 
remote. “ We need not dwell,” says one of the most 
distinguished geologists of the present day, “on the 
proofs of the low antiquity of our species, for it is not 
controverted by any geologist ; indeed, the real difficulty, 
which we experience, consists in tracing back the signs 
of man’s existence on the earth to that comparatively 
modern period when species, now his contemporaries, 
began to predominate.” * 


* Lyell’s Principles of Geology.— Vol. 1, p. 1%6, 2d ed. 


56 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. — [LECT. II. 


Anticipating an objection that man may have previ- 
ously existed for an indefinite period, but that some 
general ruin may have swept away all traces of him, 
he says, “Had these catastrophes been repeated through 
an indefinite laspe of ages, the high antiquity of man 
would have been inscribed in far more legible charac- 
ters on the frame-work of the globe, than are the forms 
of the ancient vegetation which once covered the isles of 
the northern ocean, or of those gigantic reptiles which 
at later periods peopled the seas and rivers of the north- 
ern hemisphere.”* “Geology,” says a learned professor, 
“tells us, out of its own records, that man has been but 
a few years a dweller on the earth; for the traces of 
himself and of his works are confined to the last monu- 
ments of its history. Independently of every written 
testimony, we therefore believe that man, with all his 
powers and appetencies, his marvellous structure, and 
his fitness for the world around him, was called into 
being within a few thousand years of the days in which 
we live.’+ The supposition, therefore, of the eternity 
of the world, and of the races of living beings which it 
contains, not only involves in it absurdities at which 
reason recoils, but is also contradicted by the records of 
history and the discoveries of sicence.{ 


* Lyell’s Principles of Geology. —Vol. I, p. 178. 


t{Discourse on the Studies of the University, by Professor Sedg- 
wick, p. 26, 3d ed. 


t Astronomy elso furnishes an argument of a very powerful 
nature against the eternity of the solar system. The very regu- 
larity of the planetary motions in their immense orbits, which is 
so adapted to impress the mind with the conviction that there is 


LECT. I1.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 57 


We proceed now to the remaining hypothesis, which 
assumes the eternity of matter only, and attributes all the 
forms of existence, animate and inanimate, brute and ra- 
tional, to powers inherent in matter. In this scheme 
there are two positions taken; that matter is eternal, 
and that its inherent powers have produced all the be- 
ings which exist: each of these we shall now examine. 

The first is, that matter is uncreated and eternal. 
This, indeed, is a necessary part of every atheistic sys- 
tem; since, if matter had a commencement, the existence 
of a Creator cannot be denied. The certainty of this 
part of the hypothesis, however, cannot be admitted ; 
and I believe it may be shown that it is not only inca- 


some intelligent and presiding power which directs the whole, 
has been adduced by scepticism as a proof that this system of 
movements never had either abeginning ora maker. But, while 
there is a wonderful provision for correcting all those disturbing 
forces which would materially interfere with its regularity, there 
are facts which militate strongly against the perpetual durability 
of our system. "Whatever light is, whether it radiates from the 
sun, or results from the vibrations of an ethereal fluid, the plane- 
tary spaces cannot, it seems, be entirely devoid of matter; con- 
sequently, of what must tend, in however a small degree, to in- 
terfere with the motions of these bodies. But the appearance of 
a-comet of a very singular kind, the extreme tenuity of which 
allowed the constellations to be seen through its body, and the 
observations on ifs motions, have produced in the minds of as- 
tronomers a strong belief that there does exist a resisting medi- 
um, which, though extremely rare, must yet tend to retard the mo- 
tions of the planets, and in time, though without the interference 
of a superior power it might be millions of ages, to effect the de- 
struction of the whole system. That which is destructible, which — 
is wearing itself out, the duration of which is lessened every mo- 
ment of its continuance, cannot have existed from eternity. “ We 


58 ATHEISTIC NYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


pable of proof, but is attended with such difficulties as 
destroy its credibility. There are two principles laid 
down by atheistic writers, as possessing the property, 
or nearly so, of axiomatic truth, by which the proof of 
the eternity of matter is attempted. The first is, that 
“out of nothing, nothing is made;”* therefore, it is 
concluded, the creation of matter is an impossibility. 
That if nothing exists, nothing can be produced, is a 
truth which no one will doubt; but to say that if matter 
did not exist, nothing existed, is completely begging the 
question. The atheist is not permitted, by any rule of 
reasoning, to prove that matter is eternal, by taking. it 
for granted that no God exists, and then to prove that 


shall not dwell,” observes Mr. Whewell, “upon any objections 
to this tenet which might be drawn from our own conceptions ; 
or from what may be called metaphysical sources. Nor shall we 
refer to the various considerations which history, geology, and as- 
tronomical records supply, and which tend to show, not only that 
the past duration of the present course of things is finite, but that 
it is short, compared with such periods as we have had to speak 
of. But we may observe, that the doctrine of a resisting medium 
once established, makes this imagination untenable; compels us 
to go back to the origin, not only of the present course of the world, 
not only of the earth, but of the solar system itself ; and thus sets 
us forth upon that path of research into the series of past causa- 
tion, where we obtain no answer of which the meaning corres- 
ponds to our questions, till we rest in the conclusion of a most 
provident and most powerful Creating Intelligence.”—See Mr. 
Whewell’s Bridgewater Treatise on Astronomy and General 
Physics, p. 208, and the whole of the Chapter on a Resisting 
Medium. 


* This was a great principle of the Epicurean philosophy, 
whieh was propounded by Democritus, and adopted by Epicurus. 


LECT. 11.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 7 59 


no God exists, because matter is eternal. All that a 
sceptical philosophy is entitled to assume is, that nothing 
can be produced without an adequate cause; and this 
we readily admit. If there be no eternal, selfexistent 
being, distinct from matter, then it must follow that mat- 
ter is uncreated, and consequently eternal. But this is 
the very point in dispute. It may be assumed as an 
axiom, that nothing can be produced by nothing; the 
mind accedes to the proposition instantly ; we can scarce- 
ly conceive of the possibility that any one in his sober 
senses should deny it: but that an eternal and infinite 
being is not capable of producing matter, is a proposi- 
tion so far from possessing axiomatic certainty, that the 
contrary to it has been admitted, and is admitted, by the 
human mind, in innumerable instances, without feeling 
that any intuitive principle of belief is shocked. The 
boasted maxim, therefore, that out of nothing, nothing 
is made, can be of no service to the atheistic scheme, 


Lucretius enlarges on it with great beauty and force, and addu- 
ces six arguments in proof of it. They, however, merely go to 
prove, what all must admit, that nothing can be the cause of 
its own existence. Lactantius, as quoted by Creech’s an- 
notator, very justly observes, ‘‘Sin autem intra Nature vires 
contineri voluerit Epicurus, non esset cur a nobis non laudaretur. 
Constat enim ex nihilo nihil fieri posse Nature viribus.” ‘ If Ep- 
icurus were to limit this assertion to the powers of nature, I could 
not blame him; since it is evident that by those powers, nothing 
can be produced out of nothing.’ The author of the ‘ System of 
Nature’ lays down this maxim with great confidence. “ All who 
are not enslaved by prejudice, agree to. the truth of the position, 
that nothing can be made of nothing.”—Vol. I, p. 50. Palmer 
calls this an axiom, that from nothing, nothing can be made,” 
Principles of Nature, p. 52. 


60 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


unless it means, and is capable of convincing the mind, 
that an infinite, eternal, all-powerful being, such as God 
is conceived to be, could not produce matter. Lucretius 
affirms this;* and Mirabaud strongly intimates the im- 
possibility that an uncreated and spiritual being should 
create matter or originate motion.t But to make an 
assertion of this kind is to presume to such a knowledge 
of what an infinite spirit is, and is capable of, such an 
acquaintance with matter, of the essence of which we 
know no more than we do of the essence of mind, and 
such an understanding of the mysterious nature of cau- 
sation, as no human being can possibly have. It is, in 
fact, an assertion which savors more of the rashness of 
presumption than of the careful reasoning of philosophy. 

Another principle which is confidently advanced, is, 
that as matter cannot be annihilated, it cannot have had 
a beginning.{ “It is easy to perceive, that that which 
cannot cease to exist, must have always been.” “ More- 
over, as all the world are nearly agreed, that matter can 
never be totally annihilated, or cease to exist, by what 
reasoning, I would ask, do they comprehend, how un- 


* Nullam rem e nihilo gigni divinitus unquam.”—De Rer. 
Nat...) v.,151. 


+ System of Nature.—Vol. I, p. 52. 


t This is the counterpart of the Epicurean maxim before re- 
ferred to, as having originated with Democritus. The whole is 
thus stated by Diogenes Laertius, IX. 44. Mnydev tov wn ovtos 
yeveoIar, nde ecg TO wy ov PIeoeoIar. Lucretius employs seve- 
ral arguments to prove this, but they go no farther than to show 
that we never see matter become non-existent, 


$ System of Nature—Vol. I, pp. 51, 52. 


— 


LECT. I1.] ATHHISTIC HYPOTHESES. 61 


derstand, that that which cannot cease to be, could ever 
have had a beginning?” * That we cannot annihilate 
matter is readily admitted; we have power over its 
forms only; but it does not follow, from our incapabil- 
ity, that no power exists which can effect this, or that it 
is, in the nature of things, impossible. -There are many 
things which we cannot accomplish, which are not in 
their own nature impossible. Admit the exifténce of 
an infinite, eternal, omnipotent spirit, and you will find 
no difficulty in believing that he can create and destroy ; 
that he can both produce matter, and, if he please, an- 
nihilate it. But not only is the assumed principle des- 
titute of certainty, the reasoning built upon it, even if 
it were true, is inconclusive. Itis asked, how “ wecan 
comprehend, how understand that that which cannot 
cease to be, could ever have had a beginning.” We 
reply, that we can as well “ comprehend” and “ under- 
stand” this, as we can that anything at all exists. And 
so far from any difficulty being found in such a belief, 
we find that nothing is more common. What difficulty 
is there in believing in a commencing series, the terms 
of which shall go on forever, without the possibility of 
being exhausted? Has not the immortality of man’s 
soul been admitted in every age, and almost in every 
country; and yet there has been no hesitation in believ- 
ing in its commencement? This argument for the 
eternity of matter labors, therefore, under a double de- 
ficiency ; the premises cannot be established, and if they 
could, the conclusion would not follow. 


*System of Nature.—Vol. I, pp. 51, 52. 


- 


62 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


There is an argument of somewhat different a nature 
used by the French philosopher, to prove the eternity of 
matter; it is couched in the following terms:—*If it be 
inquired how, or for why, matter exists? We answer, 
we know not; but, reasoning by analogy, of what we do 
not know, by that which we do, we should be of opin- 
ion it exists necessarily, or because it contains within 
itself a“8ufficient reason for its existence. In supposing 
it to be created or produced, by a being distinguished 
from it, or less known than itself, which it may be, for 
anything we know to the contrary, we must still admit 
that this being is necessary, and includes a sufficient 
reason for his own existence. We have not then re- 
moved any of the difficulty, we have not thrown a clear- 
er light on the subject, we have not advanced a single 
step; we have simply laid aside a being, of which we 
know some few of the properties, but of which we are 
still extremely ignorant, to have recourse to a power of 
which it is utterly impossible we can, as long as we 
are men, form any distinct idea; of which, notwithstand- 
ing it may be a truth, we cannot, by any means we 
possess, demonstrate the existence.” * The sum of the 
reasoning here advanced is this: if we find any diffi- 
culty in admitting that matter is eternal, and consequent- 
ly, that it has necessary self-existence, we must on the 
other hand suppose, that if it had a Creator, this great 
First Cause must be necessary and self-existent; and 
this produces a difficulty greater still. The premises 
here are such as none will dispute: if matter be not 
eternal and necessary, the great First Cause must have 


*System of Nature.—Vol. I, pp. 96, 97. 


“ 


LECT. II.| ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 63 


eternal and necessary existence; but on the inference 
we join issue. . 

Does not the view which we take of a supreme and 
intelligent First Cause, accord far better with that per- 
fection of nature which necessary, independent self-ex- 
istence seems to imply. The highest order of exist- 
ence of which we can conceive, is that which is dig- 
nified with intellect. It is this which gives man so de- 
cided a superiority over all other animated forms with 
which this world abounds. What is the bulk of the 
whale, the strength of the elephant, the fleetness of the 
courser, when compared with the phenomena of mind ? 
What are all the forms which matter can assume, what 
is this ponderous globe, what is the vast system of 
which it formsa part, compared with the grandeur, and 
the power, and the beauty, which the human intellect is 
capable of displaying.* And yet intellect, even accord- 


* Though the following is not precisely the case which I should 
select as an instance of the superior elevation of the mind above 
all the sublimities of nature, yet it presents, in a manner as beau- 
tiful as it is just and powerful, the inferiority of all that is pure- 
ly material to the moral grandeur which the human intellect is 
capable of displayine. 

‘‘ Mind, mind alone, (bear witness, earth and heaven!) 
The living fountains in itself contains 

Of beauteous and sublime: here, hand in hand, 

Sit paramount the Graces: here enthroned, 

Celestial Venus, with divinest airs, 

Invites the soul to never-fading joy. 

Look, then, abroad through nature, to the range 

Of planets, suns, and adamantine spheres, 
Wheeling unshaken through the void immense; 

And speak, O man! does this capacious scene 


64... ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


ispaetio atheistic philosophy, is no essential attribute 
of matter, is not co-extensive with the universe. If, as 
materialism would teach us, mind arises only from a 
high and perfect organization, it is a mere accident that 
anything like intellect exist; it is only by an unintended, 
unforeseen, and fortunate concurrence of suitable atoms, 
that intelligence was produced. But this is no perfection 
belonging to matter as such; it is partial and accidental. 
The material universe has no property of intelligence; 
it is unconscious; it has no perception of what is done 
or ought to be done; it has no will, no choice, and is 
therefore incapable of directing any effort to accomplish 
good, or to avert evil. Is this the perfection of self-ex- 
istence? Admit the possibility of a being distinct from 
matter and superior to it, and no atheist can philosophi- 
cally deny this possibility, and matter might be the pas- 
sive subject of ten thousand changes at his will and 
pleasure. Innumerable are the efiects which man pro- 
duces on the face of the globe, and on various portions 
of matter, by that acquaintance with the capabilities of 
nature, that conscious power, and those means of form- 


With half that kindling majesty dilate 
Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose 
Refulgent from the stroke of Cesar’s fate, 
Amid the crowd of patriots; and his aim 
Aloft extending, like eternal Jove 
When guilt brings down the thunder, call’d aloud 
On Tully’s name, and shook his crimson’d steel, 
And bade the father of his country, hail! 
For, lo! the tyrant prostrate on the dust 
And Rome again is free!” 
Akenside’s Pleasures of Imagination, b. 1, 481—500. 


LECT, I1.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 65 


ing and executing designs which he possesses. The 
triumph of mind over matter is the constant theme of 
admiration. Man is indeed limited, not by the changes 
of which matter is susceptible, but by his own power 
to act upon it, which he possesses only to a certain ex- 
tent. It is true, that by denying the existence of mind 
as distinct from matter, the atheist views these changes 
as operated by matter on itself; but still, is not the mind 
irresistibly impressed, by all that-is seen of nature, with 
the idea that matter is capable of undergoing changes 
by foreign influence, of being subject to extraneous pow- 
er, if any other being or beings exist? And in this case, 
what capability has matter of securing itself against the 
power of any other being, by foreseeing any attempt or 
providing against it? And is this possibility of sub- 
jection, control, and change, compatible with that abso- 
lute perfection which eternal, independent, self-existence 
supposes? But in the admission of an eternal, intelli- 
gent First Cause, no difficulty of this kind occurs. All 
things are dependent on him, and he is subject to none. 
Unbounded power, infinite wisdom, and supreme beney- 
olence mark all his works. He is an ever active agent; 
and never a passive subject. His will is the law of the 
universe. All the ordinances of heaven, all the arrange- 
ments of the earth, are his appointments; the whole 
economy of nature is under his superintendence. All 
power is weakness, all wisdom ignorance, all glory is 
nothing and vanity, when compared to the perfection of 
such abeing! Now where does the greater difficulty lie 2 
Since there must, by the acknowledgment of the boldest 
atheist, be some eternal being possessed of self-existence, 


66 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


* 


is it more difficult to conceive this absolute perfection 
of nature to belong to an intelligent First Cause, or to 
senseless matter ? 3 

And further, does not limitation of existence, either in 
duration or space seem contrary to the absolute perfec- 
tion ofa self-existing being? What is not eternal in du- 
ration cannot be necessary and independent in its exist- 
ence; and what is limited in space is so far imperfect. 
Matter cannot be infinite; form is essential to matter, and 
what has form must have limits. But the mind finds no 
difficulty in admitting the infinity as well as the eternity 
of an intelligent, self-existent, First Cause. We con- 
ceive of him as existing in all duration, and in all space. 
This is precisely the idea which we form of the existence 
of God; exactly the view which the Bible give us of 
him. We cannot comprehend eternity or infinity; but 
the mind is irresistibly impressed with the existence of 
both these attributes. Make the attempt to suppose that 
either of these has no existence, you will find it impos- 
sible. If infinity exists, it must be the property of noth- 
ing, or of matter, or of a being distinct from matter. To 
suppose it to be the property of nothing, is absurd; it 
cannot, for the reason already stated, be the property of 
matter; the conclusion is inevitable, it must belong to a 
being distinct from matter; of whom we cannot con- 
ceive matter to be independent. And who or what is 
this great being, but that eternal, self-existing one, “ of 
whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things.” 

But it is asserted, that it is “utterly impossible, as 
long as we are men, to form any distinct idea” of such 
a being. If by “distinct idea” be meant the idea of a 


LECT. I1.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. a GF 


being distinct from matter, we deny the assertion; the 
idea has been formed from time immemorial. If it be 
meant that we cannot form a clear idea of the fact that 
such a being exists, this we deny again for the same 
reason. But if the meaning be, that while “ we are 
men,” of finite minds, we cannot form an adequate idea 
of what is infinité, we admit it, and needed not an oracle 
to reveal it, or a philosopher to prove it. But to what 
purpose is this alleged? Does the atheist believe only 
things of which he has an adequate idea? Can he 
comprehend the eternity which he admits must have 
existence, and with which he is desirous of investing 
matter? When the mind arrives in its reasonings, at 
the conception of such a being as an intelligent First 
Cause, it feels, indeed, that it’ cannot comprehend his 
eternal and necessary existence, and it is overwhelmed 
by a sense of the infinity of his attributes; but it finds 
an adequate cause for all other beings, and an explana- 
tion of the phenomena of the universe. But if we think 
on the eternity and self-existence of matter, in addition 
to the impossibility of comprehending eternal and neces- 
sary existence, we feel the insuperable difficulty of con- 
necting this absolute perfection of nature, with what ap- 
pear manifest imperfections, its unconsciousness, its pass- 
iveness,its limited existence. The difficulty,then,is thrown 
pack on the atheistic scheme, the force of this argument 
for the eternity of matter vanishes, and it leaves the posi- 
tion which it was intended to strengthen without support. 

That it is impossible, “ by any means we possess,” 
to prove the existence of an intelligent First Cause, is 
an assertion which we hope, in our ensuing discourses, 


68 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


to prove is. as destitute of truth as the arguments which 
we have examined are inconclusive. It only ‘remaims 
for us now to examine the second position taken by this 
hypothesis, that matter, by its own inherent powers, has 
produced all things which exist. 

We have shown that the supposition of the eternity of | 
matter, is not only perfectly gratuitous, but that it is at- 
tended with insuperable difficulties; but even if this 
were conceded to the atheistic philosopher, he would be, 
far, very far from having accomplished his task: he has 
made scarcely any advance towards proving that the. 
present system of things could have existence without a. 
supreme and intelligent Creator. The problem which 
his hypothesis has now to solve is, given matter, an ex- 
tended, moveable substance, to account for all the forms 
of beauty, and order, and adaptation, which we behoN. 
That matter possesses properties besides these just speci- 
fied, and that to these properties, acting by invariable 
laws, are to be traced the changes which we behold in 
nature, is not denied. But who invested matter with 
such properties, and who gave to this unconscious be- 
ing laws from which it should not depart? Or, if this 
form of putting the inquiry be objected to, we ask, how 
is it that senseless matter possesses qualities so admira- 
ble, and acts so uniformly? All that we know or can 
know by experience, is, that certain conditions of bodies 
are followed uniformly by certain other conditions; 
that, for instance, the sudden collision of hard substances 
is followed by vibrations in the air, and these vibrations 
are followed by a peculiar sense in the organ of hearing; 
that the impulsion of a stone by the hand is succeeded 


LECT. II.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 69 


by motion, and that the placing of any body at liberty 
from obstruction, is followed by its descent to the ground. 
The uniformity of these occurrences we call laws; but 
we must not forget, when we speak of matter acting by 
certain properties, and according to certain laws, that it 
has neither perception nor volition, and that it does not, 
therefore, properly speaking, act. Judging by the re- 
sults of intelligence in their own minds, men in gener- 
al assign these properties and laws to the communica- 
tion, or the continued action, of a being of infinite wis- . 
dom and power. Atheism, however, affirms that these 
qualities are essentially inherent in matter, and co-eternal 
with it, and, consequently, a necessary part of its exist- 
ence; and, unless this be true, the hypothesis in ques- 
tion vanishes into “airy nothing ;” for, if matter did not 
eternally and necessarily possess them, they must have 
been communicated by a superior power, or be the mode 
im which the divine energy constantly acts. This is 
again an assumption, a mere opinion, and it might be 
met by an opinion which is, at least, equally valid, that 
an intelligent First Cause has invested matter with 
these properties. The atheist may allege that these 
properties and the laws of their action have, as far 
as we know, ever operated. This is granted, as 
far as human experience has extended; but our know!- 
edge is limited; the utmost that can be said with safe- 
ty is, that we never knew matter without-them; but 
this does not prove that matter may not have received 
them, or that they belong to matter by necessity of na- 
ture. Accustomed as we are to see the uniformity of 
these laws, and the constancy of these properties, it is 


70 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


still possible to conceive of matter in being without 
them, or of their existing in a very different form. We 
can imagine the laws of mechanical powers and chemi- 
cal agencies to be otherwise than what they are, with- 
out such difference implying the non-existence of matter, 
which must be the case, if they were necessary and es- 
sential. But let any one consider attentively the adap- 
tation of the laws of matter and motion to produce the 
most beneficial results; the vast number and diversity 
of these laws ever operating in the great system, and 
the admirable manner in which each is adapted to the 
other, and all completely harmonizing together, and he 
will not only perceive that they are just the arrangements 
which an infinitely wise and powerful bemg might have 
made, but will also, if free from prejudice, feel it very 
difficult to resist the impression that these are all but 
secondary causes, producing, indeed, in their operation, 
innumerably diversified results, but all subject to an in- 
telligent First Cause, and all the effects of his wisdom 
and power. 

It is impossible to prove, and therefore ought not to 
be assumed, that matter possesses inherently, by virtue 
of its existence, any properties necessary and essential 
to its nature, except extension and solidity. But if 
matter had possessed only these, it must ever have re- 
mained an inert mass, incapable of producing anything 
to. all eternity, or of affecting any change in itself. 
The Epicurean philosophy, and its poetic expounder, 
the elegant and jaccomplished Lucretius, therefore, su- 
peradded motion to its fundamental or essential proper- 
ties, and thus attempted to account for all the formations 


LECT. II.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 71 


of the universe. It is to this power of motion, the 
result of what they suppose to be the inherent and es- 
sential properties of matter, that modern atheists attrib- 
ute all the changes, the combinations, forms, and vari- 
ous degrees and kinds of life which exist. It is neces- 
sary, then, to examine the competency of this substitute 
for a divine power. . And, first, let us hear atheism - 
speak for itself on this point. “If we contemplate a 
little the paths of nature, if for a time we trace the 
beings in this nature, under the different states through 
which, by reason of their properties, they are compelled 
to pass, we shall discover that it is to motion, and mo- 
tion only, that is to be ascribed all the changes, all the 
combinations, all the forms, in short, all the various 
modifications of matter. That it is. by motion every- 
thing that exists is produced, experiences change, 
expands, and is destroyed.”* “It is thus motion gen- 
erates, preserves for a time, and successively destroys, 
one part of the universe, by the other; whilst the sum 
of existence remains eternally the same. Nature, by 
its combinations, produces suns, which place themselves 
in the centre of so many systems; she forms planets, 
which, by their peculiar éssence, gravitate, and describe 
their revolutions round these suns; by degrees, the 
motion is changed altogether, and becomes eccentric: 
perhaps the day may arrive when these wondrous 
masses will disperse, of which man, in the short space 
of his existence, can only have a faint and transient 
glimpse.” Not only are suns and systems produced, 
according to the atheistic: scheme, by motion, but even 


* System of Nature——Vol. I. p. 61. t Vol. I. p. 70, 


ie ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


man, in his bodily frame and in all the marvellous ca- 
pabilities of his mind, is only the result of motion. “It 
is by the aid of this interior organ, (i. e. the brain,) that 
all those operations are performed which are attributed 
to the soul; it is the impulse, the motion communicated 
to the nerve, which modifies the brain: in consequence, 
it re-acts, gives play to the bodily organs; or rather, it 
acts upon itself, and becomes capable of producing 
within itself a great variety of motion, which has been 
disignated intellectual faculties.’* “Such, also, is 
the internal motion that takes place in man, which is 
called his intellectual faculties, his thoughts, his pas- 
sions, his will.’t Thus, then, it is distinctly and 
boldly stated, that the origination of all forms, the con- 
stitution of all life, the exercise, as well as the first 
creation of every faculty, corporeal or mental, is to be 
attributed, entirely and solely, to motion! [If, then, 
motion produced all things, motion must have been 
before all things, as that which produces must be 
antecedent to that which is produced. It must also 
be assumed that it is eternal; for, if motion com- 
menced at any period, it must have had a cause: to 
suppose that matter, after an eternal quiescence, origi- 
nated motion, is an absurdity which cannot be enter- 
tained; it must, then, if it ever commenced, have hada 
cause extraneous to matter, and if that which produces 
all things but itself, was itself produced by a power 
superior to matter, and controlling it at pleasure, we 
arrive again at the idea of a supreme and eternal Cre- 


* System of Nature.—Vol. I. p. 173. t Vol. I. p. 33. 


——— 


a 


ae 

LECT. I1.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. | 73 
ator. But the eternity of motion is affirmed by this 
system without hesitation. “If it be inquired, whence 
proceeds the motion that agitates matter, the same rea- 
soning furnishes the answer; namely, that as motion 
is coeval with matter, it must have existed from all 
eternity, seeing that motion is the necessary conse- 
quence of its existence.”* “We say, this motion is a 
manner of existence that flows necessarily out of the 
essence of matter.”+ Motion, therefore, must be, ac- 
cording to this supposition, an eternal and necessary 
condition of matter; that is, a condition as essential to 
matter as solidity or form, and without which it would 
not be matter ; that is, it would have no existence. The 
whole superstructure then rests on this position, which, 
examination will, I believe, prove to be “the baseless 
fabric of a vision.” 

First, let it be noticed, that there is no possible way 
of proving that motion is eternal; that it is so, can be 
no more than a conjecture, a supposition. As this 
hypothesis admits that the human race did not always 
exist, it is impossible to say with certainty, from any 
knowledge which the experience of man can supply, 
that motion never had a beginning. It is a mere as- 
sumption, at the best; and all the confidence with which 
it is asserted, can never make it anything more. 

And is our knowledge of all the possible conditions 
of matter so universal and complete as to warrant an 
assertion, that matter may not exist, without those prop- 
erties from which its motion flows? The author just 


* System of Nature—vVol. I. p. 52, t Vol. I. p. 41, 


74 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. Il. 


quoted states that “every motion is the effect of gravi- 
tation.”* If this were true, what should we say to the 
opinions of many distinguished philosophers, that there 
are bodies, such as the electric fluid, without gravity ? 
If this be the case, it would prove by a fact that gravity 
is not a necessary property of matter, seeing. it is not 
universal, : | 

Again; if motion be essential to matter, this neces- 
Sary condition of its existence must refer to masses, or 
to the original individual particles of matter only. But 
masses of matter move by the law of gravitation, by 
which one body tends uniformly towards another. But 
if only one‘mass of matter existed, it could neither at- 
tract nor be attracted by another body, and, consequently, 
must remain immoveable. Nor could any projectile 
motion exist, without another body from which the im- 
pulse was received. If it be the individual and original 
particles of matter to which this condition is essential, 
then the existence of one particle alone, or removed be- 
yond the sphere of attraction, if it have any limits, would 
be in the nature of things impossible, as it could have 
no motion, nor tendency to motion, without the exist- 
ence and influence of other matter. Then, also, it 
would follow that every particle would be dependent 
for its existence on other particles, a supposition which 
appears absurd, and repugnant to that necessary and 
independent existence of matter which this hypothesis 


assumes. 
And farthei ; according to this supposition, matter 


could no more exist without motion, than it could with- 


* System of Nature—Vol. I. p. 43. 


“LECT. IL] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 75 


out form. It is a contradiction to suppose matter exist- 
ing without extent,—extension enters necessarily into 
the definition of matter ; but is it an equal contradiction 
to suppose matter existing without motion? ‘Take ex- 
tension from matter, and you annihilate it—it is matter 
no longer. But suppose every form and degree of mo- 
tion or tendency to motion to cease; suppose every mod- 
ification of attraction .to operate no longer,—and what 
would be the consequence? The entire stagnation of 
life, but not the annihilation of one single particle of 
matter. The eternity of motion, therefore, as a necessa-_ 
ry condition of matter, is not only a conjecture, but is a 
supposition attended with such difficulties as. to render 
it entirely inadmissible, and utterly incapable of support- 
ing the edifice which atheism seeks to raise on it. 

But, if-we concede the eternity of motion, if we give 
to the philosopher all his “affinities,” and “analogies,” 
his “aptitude to attraction,” and “repulsive power, ’— 
all the supposed eternal properties from which eternal 
motion is supposed to spring—still, with all these, he is 
incapable of explaining the phenomena of nature, or ac- 
counting for the existence of what is now inbeing. In 
the planetary world, the laws of gravitation and of mo- 
tion account for all the present movements; that is, we . 
see all the motions of those celestial spheres, whether 
diurnal or annual, belonging either to the central body, 
the primary planets, or their secondaries, all performing 
their revolutions ina certain uniform manner, according 
to what we denominate laws. But the question is, not 
merely how they now perform these movements, but what 
originated them ?—what combined the centripetal and 


76 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


centrifugal forces in such proportion, and at the same 
time gave a rotary motion to all these revolving bodies? 
Many attempts have been made to construct a theory 
which should exclude an intelligent Creator from these 
stupendous works of wisdom and power; but no theory 
that has ever yet been formed, no supposition that has 
ever yet been made, by all the ingenuity of fanciful spec- 
ulation, or by all the philosophy and general learning 
which infidelity has employed, can satisfactorily explain 
the origination of these various and combined move- 
ments, from any properties of matter, without the inter- 
vention of some great moving cause, intimately acquaint- 
ed with the sublime mathematics which they involve, 
and possessing a power to which we can assign no 
limits. 

The same kind of reasoning will apply to any organ- 
ized body, either in the vegetable or animal kingdom. 
We see around us millions of pieces of exquisite ma- 
chinery, ever working ina way which all may admire, 
but none can imitate. Not all the skill and ingenuity 
of man, aided by the most extended knowledge, the most 
profound calculations, and the most refined analysis, 
can ever, with all the material in view, make anything 
like a living animal, or one part belonging to him, such 
as an eye, or ear, or hand; orevena lily, a rose, a leaf, 
or blade of grass. Supposing, then, all the material ex- 
isting, with all the present properties of matter, how 
came these flowers and trees, and all the various kinds 
of living creatures, into being ? Is there anything in our 
own experience, in the testimony of others, in our rea- 
sonings from analogy, that can give any support to the 


LECT. I1.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. . 77 


hypothesis, that matter, by its own energies, has produ- 
ced the forms that exist? These appear to be all the 
sources of information which we possess, and if they re- 
fuse their support to the hypothesis in question, both 
philosophy and common sense must concur in pronounc- 
ing it unworthy of being entertained for a moment. 

Experience is the most satisfactory manner of obtain- 
ing a knowledge of facts. The evidence of our senses 
we do trust, and must trust; this is an intuitive princi- 
ple of belief which no man can resist. This is the only 
means we have of knowing personally what passes in 
the world without us. We know that the sun shines, 
that plants grow, that fire burns, that food nourishes, 
from experience. But will this assistthe atheistic scheme? 
We have seen the powers of nature, the laws of matter 
operating in ten thousand instances; but have we seen 
the formation of an oak from any inorganic substance, 
a bird that sprang not from a bird, or a child without a 
parent? Experience tells us that, by what we eall the 
properties of matter and the laws of their operation, 
seeds become plants, which in their turn produce seeds, 
that eggs become birds which also produce eggs; that 
children become adults, and then have children of their 
own; but it does not tell us, that by all the “affinities,” 
and “analogies,” and the various motions which are 
their result, a single seed, or egg, or infant was ever 
originated. Experience, then, lends no aid to atheism, 
but, as far as it goes, entirely contradicts it. 

Testimony, which is the experience of others commu- 
nicated to us, alike refuses its support to such a scheme. 
Much of our knowledge must necessarily be derived 


78 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


from others. Practical astronomers, and naturalists, 
and chemists, are comparatively few; but when their tes- 
timony is credible, we depend on it, with almost the 
same confidence as we trust our personal observations. 
For the facts of history we must depend on the testimony 
of others; and in addition to the credibility of the histori- 
an, and even the absence of any knowledge of him, there 
may be such internal evidence of their truth, they may 
so harmonize with each other, and be so strongly cor- 
roborated by many distinct sources of information, as to 
leave no doubt whatever on the mind of the certainty of 
these facts. But, has any naturalist, in his patient con- 
stant researches into nature, and accumulated knowledge 
of her productions in detail, ever announced to the world 
his discovery ofa new species of tree, that sprang from no 
organic substance; or a new kind of animal formed by 
the powers of matter, without a parent? Has any chem- 
ist, who has in athousand ways to put nature the torture 
to make her speak, wrung from her the secret how the 
present properties and powers of matter could originate 
a human being? Has he, by all the ingenious analysis 
and synthesis by which he decomposes the various com- 
binations of elementary matter, and unites them again, 
discovered any properties that can explain the original 
formation of animals and men, and announced this pro- 
cess to the world? Does the page of history record 
any fact of this kind, well authenticated as having oc- 
curred in any age or any climate? There isa history, 
unquestionably the most ancient now extant, which, in- 
dependently of its claims to inspiration, deserves much 
more attention for its recorded facts, than the philoso- 


LECT. II.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. : 79 


phers of infidelty ever give it, which states that “in the 
beginning God created the heaven and the earth,”—that 
trees, plants, fishes, birds, beasts, men, were all origina- 
ted by an act of divine power; and that human beings 
were created in the beginning, “male and female.” All 
the early writings of historians and poets refer to the 
creation of man, of which evidence might be adduced to 
almost any extent, and from the records of almost every 
nation.* Traditions of this are extant all over the 
world, wherever man is found. There is no testimony, 
then, that will lift up its voice or utter a whisper in favor 
of the atheistic hypothesis; but so far as any testimony 
can be bought from ancient writings and almost univer- 
sal tradition, it is almost point blank against it. 
Analogy has been solicited to aid this scheme; but 
though pressed into the service of atheism, an examina- 
tion of the evidence which it can give, will prove that 
it has nothing to say in its favor. Analogy has been 
defined, by a learned professor, as “a resemblance dis- 
cernible by reason.” To reason from analogy, is to draw 
conclusions respecting something which is unknown, 
by a comparison which it admits with something which 
is known. It isa mode of reasoning which we often 
employ, and, in many cases, it is the only kind of rea- 
soning by which any conclusion can be formed, or any 
degree of certainty obtained. It admits of various de- 
grees of certainty, from the slightest probability to assur- 


* See Grotius, de Ver. Rel. Chr. I. 1. § 16, where the learned 
_ author has cited a large collection of writers, both Greek and 
Latin, who refer the creation of the world and its inhabitants to 
‘a divine power. 


i 


80 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT,-ak 


ed proof; but this depends on the reality of the resem- 
blance, the frequency of the instances in which it has 
been noticed, and the kind and degree of connexion sub- 
sisting between the known and unknown object. While, 
therefore, analogy may sometimes lead to the discovery 
of important truth, and tend strongly to corroborate a 
fact or opinion when evidence to a certain degree al- 
ready exists—there is always need of care, in employing 
this kind of reasoning, that the resemblance be not im- 
aginary, and the grounds of comparison too slight. 
There are two cases of analogical reasoning employed 
in the ‘System of Nature,’ in favor of the hypothesis, 
that matter, by its own properties and energies, origina- 
ted all things. ! 

The first is of a more particular kind, and is derived 
from what has been called equivocal or spontaneous 
generation. It was formerly imagined that, by a sup- 
posed plastic power in nature, by the heat of the sun, by 
moisture, and putrefaction, insects and even animals were 
produced. Later and more accurate observations, by the 
most eminent naturalists, have, however, proved the fal- 
lacy of this opinion, and shown that as wherever grass, 
flowers, vegetables spring up, though apparently ina 
spontaneous manner, seed must have been conveyed by 
the wind, or birds, or remained for a considerable length 
of time deposited in some material conveyed to the soul, 
till it found a proper pabulem—so that animals and in- 
sects have been produced from their kind; and that from | 
inorganic matter no organized body is formed. “ Before _ 
the invention of microscopes, the doctrine of equivocal = 
generation, both with regard to animals or to plants of aa 


LECT. I1.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 81 


some kinds, was usually received, but this instrument 
soon convinced every intelligent person, that those 
plants which were formerly supposed to be produced by 
equivocal generation, arose from seeds; and the ani- 
mals, in like manner, from male and female. But as 
the microscope threw light on one part of nature, it left 
another involved in darkness; for the origin of animal- 
cula infusoria, or the spermatic animals already men- 
tioned,-remains as yet as much unknown as that of many 
other kinds was, when the doctrine of equivocal gene- 
ration reigned in full force.’* The manner in which 
these microscopic insects are propagated, is not yet fully 
known; there are, however, certain circumstances in 
which they make their appearance, there are certain 
conditions of matter in which they are generally found ; 
and this fact is seized on by the atheistic philoso- 
pher, to prove that morganic matter may, by its own 
properties, produce living beings, and therefore by 
analogy may produce man. “If flour be wetted with 
water,’ says the advocate of atheism, “and the mix- 
ture closed up, it will be found, after some little lapse 
of time, by the aid of a microscope, to have produced 
organized beings, that enjoy life, of which the water 
and flour were believed incapable; it is thus that in- 
animate matter can pass into life, or animate matter, 
which is in itself only an assemblage of motion. Rea- 
soning from analogy, which the philosophers of the 
present day hold perfectly compatible, the production of 
aman, independent of the ordinary means, would not 


_ be more marvellous, than that of an insect with flour 


*Dr. Rees’s Encyclopedia.—Art. Anm, 
6 


82 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


and water.” * In this argument, there is a vitiating de- 
fect, and one which pervades, more or less, all the rea- 
sonings which we have hitherto examined, and that is, 
that something is taken for granted, as the basis of the 
argument, which is not proved, and the proof of which 
is absolutely necessary to its validity. Here it is as- 
sumed, that in the flour and water there were no eggs, 
or sperm, or whatever may be necessary to their prop- 
agation according to the usual course, of former animal- 
cules. Because we have not been able to discover them, 
it does not follow that they do exist. We know that 
eggs, which contain the rudiments of future organized 
bodies, will remain for a long time without unfolding 
their organization, until they are placed in such circum- 
stances as are adapted to give an impulse to their vital- 
ity, and that this may be the case with the infusoria and 
other kinds of animalcules is very probable. As these 
creatures are so exceedingly minute, that millions of 
them would not be so large as a mite, and are known 
to be living creatures only by their motion, is it likely 
that we should be able to discover their eggs, if such 
be their mode of propagation? 'They are so abundant, 
that water, both running and stagnant, salt and fresh, 
actually swarms with them. “They abound in decay- 
ed infusions of vegetable and animal matter, in decayed 
vinegar, in the secreted fluids of animals in the living 
state, in all stagnant waters, and in the waters of lakes 
and rivers. They are the food of zoophytes. We have 
found them in incalculable myriads in the water of har- 
bors, and along our coasts, and many miles distant 
* System of Nature —Vol. I. p. 45. 


LECT. II.] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 83 


_ from land, among the Western islands; and they prob- 
ably abound, not only in the waters of the tropical seas, 
but in every drop of the ocean.”* The rudiments of a 
future race, therefore, may exist in a great abundance 
in the humidity of the soil, in the moisture of plants and 
vegetables while they are growing; may be floating 
about in the atmosphere, or in the water with which the 
infusions or mixtures are made, and waiting only a 
proper element or a due degree of temperature to start 
into life. It may be objected, that the vegetables of these 
infusions have been boiled, the water exposed to a high 
temperature, and even distilled, and yet these animalcules 
have been produced. But we are told that “they pos- 
sess great tenancy of life. They suffer exposure to very 
high and very low temperatures without perishing. 
They may be dried to hardness, and again resuscitated 
by the application of moisture. According to the exper. 
iments of Baker, Needham, and others, they may be 
revived by moisture, after remaining many years ina 
dried and apparently lifeless state.” * It is very proba- 
ble, then, that whatever contains the germ of the future 
animalcule, may be secured from the heat of a boiling 
temperature, and may escape in the vapor of distilled 
liquid. +The provisions of nature for protecting buds 


* Professor Grant, of the London University, cauated by the 
Edinburgh Review for January, 1834. 


+ Some species of infusoria appear to propagate their kind bya 
division of the body of the parent. If this be the mode of repro- 
duction with all these microscopic beings, then perhaps the pa- 
rent stock, which appear in the mixtures or infusions, may have 
existed in a very attenuated form, with a suspended vitality, un- 


84 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES, [LECT. Il. 


7 


and seeds, and whatever contains the elements of the 
future insect, are truly admirable. The assumption, 
then, that the flour or water contains the organic rudi- 
ments, from which, when brought into a proper condi- 
tion to support them, the animalcules spring, 1s support- 
ed by a far higher degree of probability than the sup- 
position that they are produced by the flour and water 
only, without any connection with beings of the same 
kind. It is supported, indeed, by the whole analogy of 
the economy of nature, so far as it is open to our in- 
spection. Plants spring from plants, insects from in- 
sects, and men from men. This case of analogy, then, 
entirely refuses to aid the hypothesis, and not even an 
animalcule can be found to favor atheism. 

There is another and more general way, in whicly 
an attempt is made to support this part of the atheistic 
scheme by analogical reasoning, the substance of which 
is this. We see by the properties of matter the germ 
burst forth, the plant shoot and grow, bear seed, and 
die; while other plants arise and go through the same 
course. ‘The progress of a human being is similar, 
from his conception, to his infancy, his youth, his man- 
hood, and old age. “In all this we see nothing but the 
effect of motion, necessarily guided, modified, accelera- 
ted, or slackened, strengthened or weakened, by reason 
of the various properties that beings successively acquire 


til a proper element produced their revivification, and rendered 
them visible to the microscope. At any rate, their multiplica- 
tion in this way makes directly against the assumption that in- 
organic matter can produce organized beings, as here one is pro- 
duced by the other. 


ee 


LECT. TI] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 85 


and lose; which every moment infallibly produces al- 
terations in bodies, more or less marked.” * This is the 
sum of many of the statements and reasonings employ- 
ed by sceptical writers. By the incessant motion of the 
various particles of matter, according to their respective 
properties, all the processes of nature are carried on; 
therefore, we ought to assign the first formation of eve- 
ry being, animate and inanimate, to the same cause. 
But here the analogy fails, and the reasoning is at fault. 
This is to account for the construction of a machine, by 
the unconscious mechanical powers that work it. The 
human machinery works by the mechanical and chem- 
ical properties of matter; but it must first have existed 
in order to work. The plant or animal in its embryo 
state, and in every succeeding stage, receives matter 
from without, which enters into its organization, but 
there is organization already existing. There is no 
analogy here on which to found an argument. We 
must see, in some department of nature, a flower, a shrub, 
a bird, or beast produced, actually produced by inorgan- 
ie matter, working with all its “affinities,” “ analogies,” 
and “ powers of motion,” before we can have any anal- 
ogy from which we can conclude, that the various forms 
of being and degrees of life that now exist, were produ- 
ced by the energy of unconscious matter. If analogy 
cannot be forced nor allured to speak in favor of the 
atheistic scheme, it has a voice to disprove and to con- 
demn it: no organized beings in the vegetable or ani- 
mal kingdom were ever known to be produced by the 


* System of Nature—Vol. I. p. 64, 


86 ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. [LECT. II. 


powers of matter; therefore their production is to be re- 
ferred to some higher power. 

We have now, with as much brevity as the subject 
would admit, examined the various hypotheses which 
exclude an intelligent First Cause from the creation of 
the universe;—we have “weighed them in the balance, 
and found them wanting.” We have shown that there 
must have been something in existence from all eternity. 
We have shown that reason, history, science condemn 
the absurdity of an eternal series of animals and men. 
We have, lastly,shown the inadmissibility of the assumed 
eternity of matter, and the impossibility of its explaining, 
even were this conceded, together with all the proper- 
ties which matter now possesses, the phenomena of the 
heavens and the existence of living beings on the earth: 
it follows, then, that there must exist an eternal and all- 
powerful being, distinct from nature, the Creator of all 
things. The idea, we admit, is overwhelming, but it 
does not involve those palpable contradictions and ab- 
surdities which attend the atheistic scheme, in whatever 
form it be presented. The admission of the existence 
of an uncreated, eternal being, of boundless power and 
wisdom, who formed and fills, sustains and governs all 
things, cannot but fill the mind with awe, and show to 
man his own littleness and vanity. But having arrived 
at this point, the mind finds repose; it recognizes an 
adequate cause for all the mighty wonders, the immense- 
ly varied and splendid effects which the universe ex- 
hibits. On every other supposition, we are lost ina 
labyrinth of endless mazes, and find ourselves bewilder- 
ed among innumerable conjectures, and contradictions, 


“] ~< 


LECT: 1L] ATHEISTIC HYPOTHESES. 87 


and absurdities. Some of these we have now endeav- 
ored to expose: this has been the object of the present 
lecture, not so directly to prove the existence of a su- 
preme and glorious Creator—though this is a necessary 
consequence—as to show the fallacy of every atheistie 
hypothesis, and its insufficiency to the task which it 
has to perform. If, then, the question of our text be 
proposed, “WHAT IS TRUTH,” with reference to 
this momentous controversy, we think that, from the 
views we have already taken, we are justified in reply- 


ing,—IT IS NOT ATHEISM. 


fi 


LEG TURE Tir. 


PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, FROM 
THE WORKS OF NATURE. 


‘ 
¥ 


4% read 
. we . 


PSALM CXI. 2.— THE WORKS OF THE LORD ARE GREAT; 
_ SOUGHT OUT OF ALL THEM THAT HAVE PLEASURE THEREIN. 


THESE are the words of the devout Psalmist, who, 
while he set an inestimable value on the divine word 
and testimonies, was often accustomed to “look through 
nature up to nature’s God.” Habitual piety, so far from 
rendering the mind insensible to the beauties of creation, 
views every object “in heaven above, or in the earth 
beneath,” with that additional interest which is produ- 
duced by the conviction that they are not the forms of 
random chance, or the results of a blind necessity, but 
_ the works of the great Parent of the universe, “the Fa- 
ther of lights, from whom cometh every good gift and 
every perfect gift.” Hence, in every age, men of de- 


eg 


~ 


he+s%. ek 
LECT. II1.] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 89 


cidedly religious principle have ranked among the 
most distinguished admirers of nature. The annals of 
science, in all its departments, are enriched with the 
names of men, who were known and wished to be 


known, as firm believers in the existence of a supreme 


and glorious Creator. No mind of sensibility and 
taste can view, without emotion, the richly varied forms 
of beauty and of grandeur with which weare surround- 
ed: under the influence of piety, this deep feeling of 
delighted admiration kindles the glow of devotion, and 
sends up the incense of praise to the glorious Being, of 
whose divine perfections they bear an impress. How 


often has the full heart, while viewing with bursting“. 


emotion this scene of wonders, exclaimed, with a*poet 
of our own, Se 
“ These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, >... 
Almighty, thine this universal frame.” . 


Nature is the only God the atheist knows; yet the 
most exquisite pleasure which it is capable of affording, 
must be lost to the mind which sees in it nothing but 
unconscious matter, obeying laws without consent, and 
exhibiting beauties without intention. None can en- 
joy nature like those who view the whole fabric as the 
workmanship of him who, in our formation, gave us a 
susceptibility to all its loveliness, and a power to enjoy 
it; who read their Maker’s name inscribed on every 
leaf, see his glory sparkle in every star, and recognize, 
in all his wonderful economy, the perpetual and varied 
manifestations of supreme benevolence. When the 
royal Psalmist beholds the sky glowing with the reful- 


din Si 
~ . 
cos 


7 


90 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


gence of day, or glittering with the gems of night, his 
devotion kindle—she exclaims, “'The heavens declare 
the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his han- 
dy work.” He loved, in his contemplations, to range 
through nature, to mark the descending dews, the fruit- 
ful showers, the revolving seasons, and the abundant 
and suitable provision made for every living creature. 
“QO Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all 
the earth!” “The earth, O Lord, is full of thy riches.” 
“Thou preservest man and beast; how excellent is thy 
loving-kindness, O God! Therefore the children of 
men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.” 
Sometimes, as in the 139th Psalm, the marvellous con- 
struction of his own frame excites his gratitude and 
praise: “I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and 
wonderfully made; marvellous are thy works, and that 
my soul knoweth right well.” This is the interesting 
department of inquiry into which I shall now direct 
your minds. Christian, the God of revelation is the 
God of nature. He who redeemed man, made man; 
the same wisdom that arranged the covenant of grace, 
formed the economy of nature; he who speaks from 
every page of his word, speaks from every object in 
the wide creation, “ Great are the works of the Lord, 
sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.” 
And you who live professedly “without God in the 
world,” while you accompany me in this excursion 
through some of the “paths of nature,” let me intreat 
your fixed attention to those indications to which I shall 
point, of what appear to all but yourselves, and of what 
I sincerely hope may appear to you also, visible and 


a 
, 


LECT. III.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE, - 91 


impressive manifestations of a creating and presiding 
intelligence. 

We have now advanced to that stage of the argu- 
ment, in which we shall have more directly to adduce 
the proofs of the existence of a Supreme Creator, an in- 
telligent First Cause of all things. Our last lecture 
was employed in hearing and examining evidence on 
behalf of atheism; now we shall produce witnesses who 
offer their testimony to prove that there isa God. Our 
object now will be rather to establish truth, than to de- 
molish error. In doing this, we have a task at once 
more easy and more pleasant; it will not be necessary 
to enter the region of metaphysics, or to require any 
considerable effort of the understanding; we shall pre- 
sent to you what is so plain and legible, that “he who 
runs may read.” Instead of pursuing error through 
the mazes of a false philosophy, in which it bewilders 
the mind, we shall exhibit some of the paths of truth, in 
which, I trust, we shall find both pleasure and profit. 

The present subject opens so wide a range, that the 
great difficulty is, not to produce instances, but to make 
the selection. The fact is, that every part of the uni- 
verse, so far as we are acquainted with it, is rich in 
manifestations of creating power and wisdom. Wecan 
only touch on a few, and these but slightly, in compari- 
son of all the particular points of evidence which each 
may afford; yet those which will be adduced, will be 
found, I trust, fully sufficient for our purpose. 

The nature of the argument on which we now enter 
is briefly this. Every effect must have its appropriate 
and adequate cause. Whether this should be considered 


92 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 
she 


an intuitive principle of belief, or whether it arises from 
experience, it is a principle so fixed in the mind, and 
universal, that we should consider the man who denies 
it either a knave or an idiot; and if he attempted, by 
his philosophy, to prove the contrary, we should deem 
him a metaphysical juggler, or, if sincere, the dupe of 
his own mystification. The innumerable effects which 
are continually produced within us and without us, 
though they arise from causes exceedingly diversified, 
may all be ranked in two general classes—those which 
result from the properties of matter, and those which 
arise from the mental operations. If between those 
phenomena which are distinctly marked as belonging 
to the one or the other, there are some of a less decided 
cast, so that we know not under which to place them, 
our present argument is not affected by it; nor are the 
different views which may be formed of the mind itself 
of any consequence. We all know that consciousness, 
and volition, are as different from any of the chemical 
or mechanical properties of matter, as the sound of a 
flute is from the color of the violet, or the shape of a 
triangle from the fragrance of a rose. With one class 
of properties we become acquainted by observation on 
what passes continually before us, or by experiments 
made for the purpose; of the other we obtain a know- 
ledge by attention to what passes in our own minds, 
We perceive matter acting by attraction, repulsion, col- 

lision; but none of the materials which the great store- 
house vi nature contains, possess intelligence or employ 
reason. But the intelligent mind acts by perceiving, 
comparing, judging, determining, designing. Matter 


LECT. 111.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. . 93 


has no foresight, no precaution, no selection ; can anti- 


cipate no evils, make provision for no difficulties. But 
mind, when its objects are selected, chooses means, em- 
ploys instruments, foresees impediments, and provides 
for meeting them. ‘There are some results which we 
always ascribe to the known properties of matter, to its 
various forms of attraction, repulsion, and to the laws 
of moving bodies; thus all the effects produced by the 
working of a piece of clock-work, or mill-work, or mu- 
sic, however various its parts and movements, arise, we 
know, from the laws by which matter acts. But there 
are many results which we as invariably ascribe to the 
operations of mind; such as the bringing together and 
adjusting the various parts of any piece of machinery, 
the disposing of the letters of the alphabet in such an 
order as to form syllables, and words, and sentences; 
or the laying of certain mineral or vegetable mixtures 
on canvas, in such a manner as to represent a human 
figure, or a landscape. Though in all this we see 
every thing done by the properties of matter, yet-we 
irresistibly feel the conviction, that in combining these 
various portions of matter, a mind has been planning 
and selecting, in order to accomplish an end. The 
more necessary, important, and beneficial the end, the 
more complex and numerous the parts which unite to 
accomplish it; and the more certain the result, the 
more deeply do we feel convinced that thought has 
been closely applied, that the mind has been careful in 
its selections, that a competent knowledge and wisdom 
have guided the whole process, and that the design, in 
fact, preceded the workmanship which so decidedly 


94 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


exhibits it. If, therefore, we see in the objects of nature 
indubitable marks of contrivance, skill, foresight —a 
simplicity of design wrought out by a complication of 
parts and movements —especially when added to this, 
the end thus accomplished is of essential consequence 
and eminently beneficial, we ought to feel the same con- 
viction; and I venture to say we do feel it, always feel 
it, unless some strong prepossessions have warped our 
judgment. 

Should it be said, that in the construction of houses, 
machines, books, we have experience to guide us—we 
know that such things have been produced by the ge- 
nius and power of man before, and therefore, on seeing 
any object of this kind, we come to a safe and certain 
conclusion; but that for the production of a world, a 
tree, a man, the effects are so very dissimilar, that never 
having seen or heard how such an object was first 
formed, we are not competent to decide; this would be 
only evading the argument; since the question is not 
how similar or dissimilar the effects are, in any point 
but one, and that is, whether in the objects of nature, as 
well as in those of art, there are any indications of con- 
trivance or design; whether in the one, as well as in 
the other, there are numerous parts, regularly disposed, 
accurately adjusted in their proportions, nicely adapted 
to each other, each independent in itself, and performing 
its own functions, but all harmonizing together and 
working out one beneficial end? If we find an object 
of this kind, whether we have ever seen any thing like 
it before or not, whether it comes within the limits of 
human power or not, design there certainly is, thought 


LECT. III.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. - 95 


has been employed, mind has been at work. Mathe- 
matical demonstration the subject will not admit of, it is 
a kind of proof which is inapplicable; but if we see in- 
stances of indubitable foresight, precaution, intention, in 
any of the works of nature, then we have a moral cer- 
tainty, as a most assured proof, that there has been an 
intelligent, though inyisible cause operating, who is 
the great designer and the mighty agent in their pro- 
duction. 

Nor can this conclusion be avoided, though it is some- 
times attempted, by attributing all these results to the 
necessary laws of nature—that is, to the certain and uni- 
form connection of cause and effect. The question lies 
within a very narrow compass: Can all that we see in 
nature be the result of chance, or are we compelled to 
admit design? Were the various forms of living beings 
produced intentionally or accidentally? There is no 
alternative; one or the other must be admitted. To say 
that it was by necessity, is no answer to the question, 
since it may apply alike to either. A man may throw 
down a handful of printing-types; the position of the 
letters is by chance; it may happen that a and 8, or any 
two or three consecutive letters of the alphabet may be 
found together; we should term this purely accidental. 
Now, there is a cause why every letter, in falling, took 
the exact position which it occupies: here, then, “the 
necessary laws of nature” are combined with chance 
and accident. But the same man carefully picks up the 
letters from the heap, and so arranges them that he 
works off with them a fable or an ode. In every thing 
that is now done, there is just as necessary a connection 


96 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


between cause and effect as before, but here the neces- 
sity is combined with intention and design. In the one 
case, the position of the letters was left to the mere prop- 
erties of matter; in the other, they were arranged un- 
der the direction of mind. When, therefore, we speak 
of chance or accident, we mean not an occurrence with- 
out a cause, but that which excludes foresight and in- 
tention; and when the atheist introduces his necessity, 
it cannot touch the argument from design. We have 
only, then, to produce cases of manifest intention and 
design, and our argument is invincible; there must have 
been an intelligent mind to form the intention, and to 
accomplish the designed end. 

Nor need we go far in quest of instances of this kind; 
the world is full of them, they exist in every depart- 
ment of nature. We shall not, however, examine the 
curious structure and admirable physiology of plants; 
we shall not investigate the wonders of insect mechan- 
ism, nor those exhibited by the imhabitants of the seas, 
the air, or the forests; the striking adaptations of various 
kinds, and the marvellous instincts which they exhibit— 
which the properties of matter can no more account for 
than they can for the chronological tables of the Arun- 
delian marbles, or the hieroglyphics of the Egyptian 
tombs and the mummies which they contain. But, leay- 
ing the wide range of the vegetable world, and the ani- 
mal kingdom in general, I shall confine myself to Man, 
and shall take a view of him in wis puysicaL stTRUC- 
TURE—HIS RELATION TO THE WORLD WHICH HE IN- 
HABITS,—AND AS AFFECTED, BY THE RELATION OF 
THAT WORLD, TO THE SYSTEM OF WHICH IT FORMS A 
PART. 


LECT. IIl.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. - 97 


Let us first take a view of the structure of man’s frame, 
and see if we can find any clear indications of intelli- 
gence and design in its formation. 

A necessary preliminary, in any building or piece of 
machinery, is the construction of its frame-work, by 
which the parts may be all firmly sustained and held 
together. In the human body this is the skeleton. In 
this, its perfection is, that there should be every thing 
sufficient, and nothing redundant. If there were any 
thing deficient, weakness and incompetency for the 
end designed would ensue; if there were more than 
was necessary, it would needlessly encumber the work- 
ing of it. Inthe human skeleton, there is bone wherever 
bone is needed, but not one bone, however smal], nor an 
inch of bone, is useless. 

The material must not only be in sufficient quantity, 
and of such a quality as to secure solidity and strength, 
but also, as m every construction that is to be movable, 
provision must be made for its being sufficiently light. 
A failure in eithez case would bea serious defect. Now 
the substance of support to our body, the human bone, 
exactly answers these conditions. It is composed chiefly 
of phosphate of lime, which gives to it nearly the con- 
sistency of stone, with the lightness of wood. But there 
is another apparent contrivance, founded on geometrical 
principles. It has been demonstrated, that the same 
quantity of material formed into a tube, is much strong- 
er than when it is perfectly solid. In the long bones 
this formation obtains; thus, without an increase of 
weight, there is a considerable addition of strength. But 
in producing that degree of consistency which we call 

7 


98  PpROOFs OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III 


hardness, the bone might have become brittle, and very 
liable to be broken, or, in avoiding this, it might have 
been too flexible, and thus incapable of supporting a 
weight; but it is neither the one nor the other. It has 
strength to support, without being liable to chip or crack 
like porcelain. 

But, besides support, protection is requisite, and this 
is amply afforded by the bony structure. Whatever is 
delicately fine, and thus easily susceptible of injury, or 
whatever is highly valuable, and especially whatever 
unites both these qualities, we take much care to guard. 
A watch has a metal covering to preserve the nice work- 
manship from injuries, by being crushed by external 
violence, or damaged by the dust; a piano-forte has a 
case; our deeds are deposited in iron chests; the Tow- 
er, with all its defences, secures the regalia; in all this 
we see prudent precaution and evident design. Now, 
‘1 all the means taken to prevent apprehended danger, 
which, in these or any other cases, give us the assurance 
of intelligent precaution, there is nothing, can be noth- 
ing, more palpably evident, than the design to preserve, 
which is manifest in the protection afforded to every 
weak and vital part in the human frame. The skin 
may be torn, a muscle may be pierced, or a part of it 
cut away, and yet the machine may go on working ; 
the wound may heal, and no serious injury be sustain- 
ed. But if an organ, so preciousas the brain or heart, 
or any vital part, be injured, the mischief affects the 
whole system, and may be irreparable. See how the 
brain, seated, as it were, on the throne of the human 
domains, is guarded. The bones of the cranium rise 


LECT. Ill.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 99 


up around it like solid walls, and, uniting into an arch, 
spread a dome above it. Within is a plate, hard and 
brittle, which no point can easily pierce; to prevent this 
from being chipped or cracked, there is an exterior 
plate, of less hardness, but of less susceptibility to injury 
from a blow; and over the whole is spread a soft, thick 
mat of hair; which tends materially to break the shock 
arising from collision with any hard body, and thus to 
save the brain from concussion, while at the same time 
it gives beauty to the appearance. Near the brain, and 
in direct communication with it, are the eyes, important 
inlets of information from the external world. These or- 
gans are of exquisite workmanship : an exposed situation 
would be highly dangerous; they are placed, therefore, 
in bony caverns, which throw their strong arches over 
them to protect them. The spinal marrow is a contin- 
uation of the brain, which supplies the body with nerves ; 
how shall its safety be secured through the whole length 
ofthe trunk? For this purpose it has a hollow way 
made through the solid bones of the back, and reposes 
in safety in the midst of the spine. The heart and lungs 
are ever busy, day and night their labor is performed, 
an obstruction from injury is certain death. Behind, 
the spine is the central guard, while from it the ribs ex- 
tend in a circular form, till they join a front defence, 
which is the breast-bone. Thus room is afforded for 
the play of these organs, and ample protection is secur- 
ed. The whole of this frame-work stands on two firm 
pillars, which rest on pedestals, and sustain the structure. 
Does this evident protection, in all these instances, Jook 
like chance-work, or the operation of the unconscious 


100 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


properties of matter? What could intelligence have done 
more ? 

But this was to be a movable structure ; if the frame- 
work had been all of one piece, it might have been as 
firm and as solid, but it would also have been as mo- 
tionless, as a statue. Vegetables are fixed to one place, 
their nutriment is ever at hand, all their wants are sup- 
plied without any effort, they have neither the need nor 
the power to alter their situation.* But man is a locomo- 
tive machine; he has the power of self-motion, as well 
as the necessity of transferrimg himself from place to 
place. He must seek his food and prepare it; he must 
provide himself with clothing and put it on; he hasa 
thousand offices to perform, and ten thousand motions 
are requisite. If man’s frame had been made immoy- 
able, or but of one piece, he must have perished. In 
order, then, to admit of all these motions, the skeleton 
is divided into a great number of parts, of such size and 
shape, and in such positions, as to allow of motions of 
innumerable variety The number of distinct bones is 
two hundred and fifty-four, all connected and combined 
into one piece of frame-work. Now, to manage all this, 
so the connection shall be at once firm, the motions easy, 


* There are some few exceptions, particularly in aquatic plants, 
which float on the surface of the water. Foran account of these, 
and many remarkable phenomena in the vegetable world, see an 
interesting work, entitled ‘The Physiology of Plants,’ which, 
though anonymous, is generally known to be the production of 
Mr. Murray, whose lectures in various branches of science have 
profited no small number of our countrymen, in different parts of 
the kingdom, and who is the author of several publications, in 
which science pays a willing homage to divine truth. 


LECT. III.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. ~ 101 


where motion is needed, and capable of being continued 
for a long time together, requires no small contrivance 
and dexterity. If we could conceive of a person, with- 
out any knowledge of the human frame, a most ingeni- 
ous mechanic, who should be required to give a plan 
for such a piece of frame-work, comprising within the 
dimensions ofa human body all the requisites of strength, 
durability, firmness, lightness, protection, and thousands 
of motions, in almost every possible direction, we should 
feel that it was a task which, if at all practicable, would 
require the utmost knowledge, and skill, and long con- 
trivance. How, then, can we suppose that all these 
provisions are made, and these conditions actually ful- 
filled, by any thing short of a most surprising wisdom 
and intelligence? Let us see how all this is effected. 

As the various pieces, which constitute this frame- 
work, are necessarily connected together, their extremi- 
ities do not terminate abruptly, but are formed to fit each 
other with the most complete adaptation. If they had 
been formed accidentally, without any design to fit’each 
other, there would have been a great probability that the 
extremities of the movable bones might some of them 
have been points, or that two concave or convex extrem- 
ities might have met, which would have rendered mo- 
tion impracticable. But we see a convex always working 
in a concavity, a tenon in a mortice, a projection in an 
indentation. No two parts which a carpenter intends 
to unite are formed with a more evident adaptation, the 
one to the other. 

As the motions to be performed are many, the joints 
vary considerably, according to their relative position, 


102 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


and the kind and extent of motion needed. The prin- 
cipal agents in the movements of the body are the arms 
and legs; but in each of these upper and lower extrem- 
ities, the bones are so divided, and arranged, and artic- 
ulated, as to admit of very extensive, varied, and com- 
plicated movements. ‘The hip and the shoulder joints 
are formed by the working of a globular extremity into 
a kind of cup, called frequently the ball and socket joint. 
By this mode of articulation, motion is admitted in any 
direction. Now this kind of joint was particularly ne- 
cessary just in this place, as all the motions which any 
part of the limb has to perform depend on this. It is 
just the place where an ingenious mechanic would have 
fixed a joint capable of this rotary motion. It is also 
worthy of remark, that at those joints, where there is 
any considerable weight, or liability to pressure, the 
uniting extremities are much larger than the other parts 
of the bone; by this means, the weight or pressure is 
better supported, and there is less danger of dislocation. 
At the elbow and knee, the joints are of a different de- 
scription, and consist of eminences and hollows adapted 
to each other. In other cases, the bones work by slid- 
ing over a smooth surface. But there are two very pe- 
culiar kinds of articulations, which, though often noticed, 
we should not be justified im omitting. 

The first is, that which admits of the motions of the 
head. On many accounts it was necessary that the 
head should have a freedom and facility of motion in 
every direction. ~Here are fixed four of the senses, by 
which the mind within holds intercourse with the exter- 
nal world. It is very necessary that the organs of sight 


LECT. I11.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. _ 103 


and sound, of tasting and smelling, should be presented 
with great ease towards any object. How is this to be 
accomplished, consistently with a firm position on the 
bony column which supports the head? On the upper- 
most bone of the spine, thence called the atlas, the skull, 
with its important contents, rests; and the motion which 
this articulation admits, is that of playing up and down, 
or forwards and backwards, in a hinge-like joint. By 
this we can elevate or depress the head, so as to com- 
mand a considerable extent of view in a perpendicular 
direction. But in order to allow of motion in a hori- 
zontal plane from right to left, the second bone of the 
vertebral column, called the dentatus, has a projection 
which fits into a corresponding hollow in the atlas, or 
bone which rests upon it, so as to form a swivel joint. 
In the perpendicular motion, therefore, the head moves 
on the atlas; inthe horizontal movement, both the head 
and the atlas move on the dentatus. Is it possible to 
believe that in this there was no intended provision, no 
thought, no mind employed? Is there any ingenious 
contrivance to accomplish an end, in any department of 
mechanics, that more distinctly announces design ? 
Another kind of articulation which deserves notice, 
is that which occurs in the formation of the spine. This 
is the column which supports the upper part of the body, 
and is fixed upon the pelvis, which, extending its base, is 
sustained by the two great pillars of the human fabric, 
While, in various ways, strength, firmness, and solidity 
are secured to this important pillar, its peculiar construc- 
tion gives it that necessary flexibility, of which a single 
strong bone would not admit. It is composed of twenty- 


104 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


four distinct bones, the surfaces of which do not come 
into actual contact with each other, but between them is 
an elastic cartilaginous substance, which, by allowing 
the vertebre to be brought nearer to each other, on any 
one particular edge, admits of the bending of the body 
in that direction. By this admirable contrivance, the 
spinal marrow, which passes through the entire verte-_ 
bral column, is preserved from those numerous occasions 
of pressure, which it must otherwise sustain under the 
circumstances of various flexion to which the trunk is 
subject, and without which provision the most serious 
consequences would perpetually ensue. It possesses, by 
this means also, in connection with its slight curvature, 
an elastic property, “ without which every motion of the 
body would produce a jar to the delicate texture of the 
brain, and we should suffer almost as much in alighting 
on our feet, as in falling on our head.” * Is it possible 
not to perceive, in the curious mechanism of this solid, 
yet elastic pillar, through which that “ silver chord,” the 
spinal marrow, passes in safety amidst all the motions 
of the body, that the difficulties so ingeniously obviated 
were foreseen, and that the advantages thus obtained 
were designed ? 

We must pass over the curious mechanism of the 
hand, with its twenty-seven bones, admitting of motions 
and positions almost innumerable; and the no less re- 
markable construction of the foot, with its thirty-six dis- 


* Animal Mechanics,—p. 8. One of the most valuable and in- 
teresting publications of the Society for the Promotion of Useful 
Knowledge, which, it is understood, is the production of Sir 
Chas. Bell. 


LECT. IIl.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. — 105 


tinet parts, so put together, as not only like a pedestal 
to support the fabric, but built also on elastic arches, to 
preserve the whole from sudden shocks in walking, and 
to give a springiness to its motions. Every part of this 
admirable structure bears an impress of designing wis- 
dom, which the study and the skill of those who have 
had the longest experience in mechanical constructions 
can seldom equal. ‘Men proceed,” says a distinguish- 
ed ornament of his profession, “in a slow course of ad- 
vancement in architectural, or mechanical, or optical 
Sciences; and when an improvement is made, it is found 
that there are all along examples of it in the human 
body, which ought to have been marked before, and 
which might have suggested to us the improvement.” * 
‘We undertake to prove,” says the same author, “that 
the foundation of the Eddystone light-house, the perfec- 
tion of human architecture and ingenuity, is not formed 
on principles so correct, as those which have directed 
the arrangement of the bones of the foot; that the most 
perfect pillar or kingpost is not adjusted with the accu- 
racy of the hollow bones which support our weight; 
that the insertion ofa ship’s mast into the hull is a clum- 
Sy contrivance,compared with the connection of the hu- 
man spine and pelvis; and that the tendons are compo- 
sed in a manner superior to the last patent cables of 
Huddart, or yet the more recently improved chain.ca- 
bles of Bloxam.” * 

Before we quit the skeleton human frame, we must 
be permitted to make an additional remark or two re- 


* Animal Mechanics,—p. 2. 


106 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


specting the joints. As these are to be in play during a 
number of years, two things are highly necessary ; that 
provision should be made against the wearing away by 
friction of the joints which work into each other, and 
against their being easily displaced. 'To accomplish 
the first object, the articulating surfaces are covered 
with a cartilage soft and smooth as the best polished ivo- 
ry. And to facilitate, still farther, the motions of the 
bones in the joints, and to prevent the injury from fric- 
tion, there are vessels which secrete an oily mucilage, 
which continually lubricates the joints. ‘To prevent 
dislocation, the bones are, at these joints, firmly fastened 
together by ligaments, formed of a strong pliant sub- 
stance, which, while they admit a freedom of motion to 
a certain extent, keep every thing in its place. If these 
be considered accidental circumstances, they are cer- 
tainly accidents of the most fortunate kind, as without 
them all the other admirable adjustments would have 
been worthless, or nearly so, and the working of the hu- 
man machine would have been impracticable. Let me 
beg my sceptical hearers to put together these notices 
of a few, a very few, of the striking adaptations, the evi- 
dent provision against evils, and the curious arrange- 
ments, by which advantages are obtained, which the hu- 
man skeleton exhibits, and to allow, without prejudice, 
their due force on the mind, and I can scarcely think 
that they will resist the strong proof of intelligence 
which these display. 

We have seen that, while the support of the fabric is 
one object attained by this bony frame-work, there is 
another intention quite as evident in their formation, 


LECT. I1l.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 107 


and that is motion; and that such is the mechanical 
skill with which they are disposed, as to admit of innu- 
merable movements, in almost every direction. The 
bones may, therefore, for the most part, be considered as 
a system of levers. But how are these levers to act in 
all the required directions ? To all the movable spars of a 
ship, we see ropes attached; the yards, the gafts, the 
booms, all have their cordage, to move them in different 
directions. Hence the numerous ropes, running, some 
horizontally, others perpendicularly, parallel to each 
other, crossing each other, appear to a Jandsman all in- 
termingled and confused, while to a sailor the use of 
every one is known, and he sees that the place, the size, 
and direction of every one is just what it should be. 
To a person unacquainted with the anatomy of the hu- 
man frame, if the covering were removed, he would 
see a number of distinct layers of flesh, laid on each 
other, and crossing each other in many directions; 
and, on a closer inspection, he might see the attachment 
of the muscles to the bones; still he might view in the 
whole nothing but a mass of flesh, without perceiving 
any thing like mechanical contrivance. But in this the 
eye of the anatomist sees a fine, a beautiful, a most ac- 
curately adjusted piece of machinery, with the office of 
every part of which he is acquainted, and the ingenious 
construction of the whole of which he admires. Let us 
take a brief and cursory view of the muscular system, 
and see whether we can discover any evidence of intel- 
ligence and skill in its formation and its working. 

The composition of a muscle is itself a very curious 
subject of inquiry. It consists of three parts ;—the ex- 


{08  PpROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IIl. 


tremity of its origin, where it is fixed on the bone which 
is to be the support of its motion; suchas the insertion of 
the tendon of the biceps flexor cubiti, that muscle which 
bends the fore-arm into the scapula by two heads ;—the 
middle, or fleshy part of the muscle, which, in the in- 
stance now mentioned, continues from the shoulder down 
tothe front of the fore-arm ;—and the tendon at the oth- 
er extremity, inserted into the bone, which it is intended 
to move asa lever, which insertion takes place, in the case 
now specified, in the radius, one of the bones of the fore- 
arm, a short distance from the elbow. The tendons of 
a muscle are white, and exceedingly strong. They are 
composed of small fibres, so plaited and interlaced to- 
gether, as to give, on mechanical principles, the great- 
est degree of strength. The muscle to which these 
tendons are attached, consists of an inconceivable num- 
ber of fibres, lead together in small bundles, and united 
firmly by the cellular substance. When the anatomist 
proceeds to separate these threads, he finds each bundle 
inclosed in an appropriate case, and this small bundle 
inclosing a number of still smaller bundles similarly 
inclosed; and, continuing his researches by the aid of 
the microscope, he finds each of these again inclosing 
others, till he can go no farther; the elementary thread 
or fibre being too fine to be traced. Now, these delicate 
fibres, in comparison of which the thread ofa spider’s 
web is a coarse rope, are laid and united together with 
an art so admirable, and the mutual support which they 
render is so complete, that the muscle of which they 
are composed is capable of sustaining an enormous 
weight, and will admit of the breaking of a bone before 


LECT. 111.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. _ 109 


they yield. It is on this principle that you first comb 
your wool, to get the filaments straight and parallel, that 
they may be in a position to give mutual support, and 
talke care that such a number of them shall be united 
together as may give the requisite degree of strength 
to the yarn.* Certainly, if contrivance had been em- 
ployed with the greatest dexterity, a more complete re- 
sult could not have been obtained. 

But how is the motion of the bones, in all the neces- 
sary directions, effected by these muscles? In a way 
which, if devised by human ingenuity, would have been 
considered a master-piece of skill. The whole machine 
is to be transferred from place to place, with ease and 
speed, by a power working within it; and all its vari- 
ous parts must admit of separate movements. For eve- 
ry distinct movement, one muscle, at least, is provided, 
one end of which is fixed securely to a bone which is 
the support of the motion, and the other by its tendon to 
the part to be moved; the middle part, called the belly 
ofthe muscle, contracts by a power dependent on the will, 
and swells into a larger bulk, and thus draws the movable 
bone, the joint on which it turns being the fulcrum, with 
considerable force. Of the extent of this power we are 
sensible by our muscular action. Such, indeed, is the 
power of the contracting muscle, that it can actually 
afford to spare a portion of it in order to secure rapidity 
of movement. Youare allaware of the great principle 


* Perhaps it may be proper to remark, that these lectures were 
delivered to a manufacturing community, and these and other 
subsequent allusions are best understood by sucha class. It was 
not thought necessary to omit or alter them. 


110 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


of mechanics; that power can only be gained at the ex- 
pense of time, or, what is equivalent, motion; and thata 

‘rapid motion can be secured only by the sacrifice of 
power. But it is sometimes an object of considerable 
importance to obtain a rapid movement, and then, as in 
a lever of the third kind, the power is applied between 
the fulcrum and the other end of the lever. Now this 
construction frequently obtains in the machinery of the 
human frame. Take, for instance, the muscle already 
referred to (the biceps flexor cubiti.) One extremity bemg 
fixed in the shoulder blade, it passes onward, till it is 
inserted in the main bone of the forearm. The elbow 
joint is the fulcrum on which the lever rests, and the 
insertion of the muscle is within a very short distance 
of the joint; by this means there is a great loss of pow- 
er; if the insertion had taken place at any point nearer 
the wrist, a greater weight might have been raised, but 
as it is, besides the great inconvenience in point of size, 
which an attachment lower down the arm would have 
occasioned, the hand moves with a velocity which is 
far more frequently needed, and more generally useful, 
than the capability of raising a greater weight. ‘The 
advantage of this rapid movement of the hand, in pro- 
tecting the person, in the use of the hammer and the 
axe, and in a thousand manual operations of constant 
recurrence, is unspeakable. 

But what must not be overlooked, is the circumstance 
that to every! muscle which moves a bone, there is an 
antagonist which acts in a different direction. How is 
it possible that this can be accidental ? For every flexor 
there is an extensor, for every abductor an adductor, 


< 


LECT. I1Il.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. ~ 111 


and for a pronator a supinator. A single muscle only 
to every bone, would leave the human frame nearly as 
incapable of action as though it had none at all. There 
is a muscle to straighten the arm as well as to bend it, 
one to bring the head to its position after it has been 
turned, one to open the eye, as well as to shut it. With- 
out this capability of antagonistic action in the different 
muscles, it would be impossible to stand, to walk,to eat,or, 
in fact, to maintain for any length of time our existence. 
It must also be noticed, that whenever, in obedience to 
the will, any particular muscle is called into action, its 
antagonist immediately relaxes, or the action of both 
might keep the limbat rest; a flexor and extensor yield 
as readily and certainly to each other’s movement as 
the two scales of a balance, or as if they acted by mutu- 
al consent. 

To perform all the requisite functions, a very large 
apparatus of muscles is necessary. Those by which 
voluntary motion is performed are four hundred and 
thirty-six. And is it not a most astonishing instance of 
contrivance, that all these should be so placed as not to 
interfere with each other’s motions, and yet to occupy 
so small a space? They pass over and under each oth- 
er, they cross each other; in some cases one passes 
through another, or they change the direction of their 
power, as by a loop or pulley, or, situated for conveni- 
ence at a distance, they perform their office by means 
of a small cordage, where a large muscle could not con- 
veniently act; as the tendons which move the toes, 
which are actually strapped down by ligaments at the 
instep, and run ina sheath beneath those fastenings high- 


112 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


er up the leg, till they join the muscle. What could 
the most skilful contrivance have done more? Consider, 
then, the curious construction of these muscles, their 
number, their variety, their position, their adaptation, 
and their power; without which not a word could 
be spoken, nor a morsel of food chewed, nor a finger 
moved; and the exact arrangement by which they are 
all disposed, so as to act with the greatest advantage, 
and, without interference or disorder, to occupy so small 
a space; and can you hesitate to acknowledge a creat- 
ing intelligence? A ship, with all its decks, and masts, 
and rigging, does not exhibit half the mechanical con- 
trivance and ingenuity which the human frame displays ; 
and what would you say of a man, who could suppose 
that “Nature” had framed this curious structure; 
meaning, that the various particles of matter which com- 
pose its hull and its rigging, had all, by the necessary 
laws of unconscious matter, arranged themselves into 
planks, and masts, and yards, and blocks of different 
kinds, and sails of various shapes and sizes, just fitted 
to their place, and ropes withal to work the vessel, so as 
to form a fine and gallant ship of war ? 

But how is all this apparatus of muscles, with their 
tendinous cords, to operate on the bony levers, so as to 
give them motion at the proper time, and in the right 
direction? In your mills the power is generated by 
steam, and by means of shafts and straps communicated 
to any part of the machinery, at what time and in what 
proportions and places the mind which governs all 
deems proper. In a ship, a presiding mind governs 
the whole arrangement. The word of command is 


s. 


LECT. I1l.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. “118 


given; and the halliards, the braces, the sheets, the tacks, 
the bowlines, are immediately put in motion by the 
crew. ‘The sails are hoisted, or reefed, or taken in, in 
order to accelerate or retard the speed of the vessel, to 
the motion of which the rudder gives the intended di- 
rection. So, in the human structure, there is a presid- 
ing mind, to which all the machinery is subject; its 
volitions are the word of command, which is no sooner 
given, than one, two, or twenty muscles instantly exert 
their force, and, by their tendons, draw the bone in’the 
required direction. And with what an admirable pre- 
cision this is done! there is no mistake of the order 
given; a foot does not move instead of a hand; the arm 
is not depressed when the will commands its eleva- 
tion, and motion is not continued when the order 
is given to stop. Not one of the four hundred and 
thirty-six voluntary muscles move without an order, and 
only just that one, or that number of muscles, which are 
needed ; without any refusal to act or to be still, with: 
out any interference of one class with the movements of 
the other, and without a moment’s delay, is obedience 
rendered. All this is performed by means of the nerves, 
which are supplied to every part of the human frame. 
We can trace all muscular motion to the nerves, and 
theseto their commoncentre, the brain, or its continuance, 
the spinal marrow. If any of the nerves, communica- 
ting between the brain and any particular part, are sev- 
ered, the power of motion and sensation is lost. But 
here we stop; a veil which we cannot penetrate is thrown 
ovér the rest—we come to something invisible; there is 
a mysterious power which operates on the sensorium, 
8 


So ae 


ey 


114 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


which communicates its volitions by what is termed the 
nervous influence, which is known only by its proper- 
ties and effects,and which we call THE SOUL. How 
the mind’s volition produces instantaneously the motion 
of a limb; how the commands of the will are propaga- 
ted by means of the nerves, through many limbs and 
intervening parts of the system, to the extremities, to a 
foot, or a finger, and that with a rapidity equal to the 
passage of light, or the motion of the electric fluid, is 
equally beyond the comprehension of a philosopher and 
a child. 

The nerves are cords of various size, proceeding from 
the brain and spinal marrow; the former supplying 
principally the organs of sense, the latter those of motion ; 
they are given off in distinct pairs, and their ramifica- 
tions extend over the entire corporeal structure. By 
them the commands of the will are transmitted to every 
muscle which is ordered into motion. And not only do 
they communicate the mind’s pleasure to every part of 
its dominions,—they also convey information to a con~ 
siderable extent of whatever passes in these realms, or 
without them, which affects its welfare. If there is any 
mischief going on in any portion of the system, if injury 
is received by cold or heat, obstructions or collisions, or 
by whatever may affect the well-being of any part, the 
nerves give notice to the mind, by the pain which is felt, 
and thus act like sentinels at their post, whose vigilance 
nothing can escape. 

And besides this general intelligence, which it is the 
office of the nerves to give, there are some appropriated 
to peculiar functions, to give information of a specific 


LECT. I1l.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 115 


kind. Some of these give the sensations of hardness, 
softness, smoothness, and others of a like kind ; some 
have the charge of sounds, others of odors and tastes, 
and to others is assigned the office of conveying to the 
mind ideas of formand color. These are the means by 
which the mind carries on its intercourse with the ex- 
ternal world, and holds correspondence with other liv- 
ing creatures. Can we, then, from even this brief and 
cursory glance at the nervous system, which has not 
noticed a thousandth part of its wonders, resist the im: 
pression that mind had been employed in its construc: 
tion? Could such a telegraphic communication have 
been established between the brain and every part of 
the system, by which a correspondence is maintained, 
not only with every muscle, but with every fibre, by 
mere chance? Could so complete a system of guardian- 
ship be constituted over every part of the frame by the 
“necessary laws” of matter 1 Could sucha mode of cor: 
respondence with external objects be accidental 2 What 
is not the mind capable of believing, that can believe 
this ? : 

We often see very delicate machinery, or what is 
lable to injury from exposure to the air, or contact with 
other bodies, inclosed ina case ; and thus it is with the 
human body. The muscles and nerves, and the various 
vessels, are of a texture too delicate to admit either of 
such exposure or contact; they are placed, therefore, in 
a suitable covering. First, every hollow is filled up, 
and every inequality rendered smooth, by the cellular 
texture, which is the general medium of connection be- 
tween the different parts of the body, and which con- 


116 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. ITI. 


tains an adipose substance, which allows of their gliding 
smoothly over each other in performing their respective 
functions. Over the whole is drawn the skin; the in- 
ner part of which is the cutis, or true skin, full of an 
immense number of small vessels, containing numerous 
papille, and being spread over with mnumerable ner- 
vous filaments: this is the seat of the organ of touch, 
and is exquisitely sensible. Above this lies the mucous 
membrane, forming the colormg matter of the skin. 
Over all is spread a fine scarf skin, full of pores, of a 
thin transparent substance, capable of being easily re- 
newed if it receive an injury, covering and protecting 
the extremely sensible true skin, itself not possessing 
sensibility. In this case, which envelopes the human 
frame, we see many objects accomplished. The muscles, 
with the vessels which accompany them, have a cover- 
ing of the most pliant and flexible kind, so as to admit 
of every motion which the body requires; this cover- 
ing forms the station where all the nerves take their 
post, to communicate to the brain intelligence of what 
happens on the surface of the body: it has also a deli- 
cate and transparent veil, which, while it protects what 
_ is beneath, itself suffers no pain, and which, where from 
pressure, such as in the palms of the hands and at the 
soles of the feet, itis more liable to be worn out, is thiclx- 
er than at the other parts of the surface. Do not these 
things look very much like studied or designed ar- 
rangements ? 

We have now given a brief sketch of the building of 
the human frame, and the provisions made for the work- 
ing of its machinery. Before we quit this part of the 


LECT. I1I.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 117 


subject, there is one view of the case, to which I wish 
especially to call your attention, and that is the very 
evident adaptation, not only of the several parts to each 
other, but of the several systems of parts, so as to pro- 
duce one object. In the frame-work of the structure, 
we have seen not only an excellent selection of material, 
its division into a vast number of parts, all exactly ad- 
justed to each other, so as to protect all that is vital and 
important, and to admit of movements without number, 
and the joints in which these levers work, so constructed, 
and so supplied with a mucilage as to prevent friction; 
we have not only seen millions of millions of fibres, so 
laid together and disposed as to give to each muscle the 
collective strength of the whole, and these furnished 
with tendinous cords to fix them to their proper levers, 
and to work either near or at a distance; we have not 
only seen a system of nerves, in connection with the 
sensorium, spreading themselves through every part of 
the human frame, giving notice to every distinct fibre 
when to act and when to rest, and keeping open a com- 
munication between the mind within and the world 
without ; but we also have seen that the system of bones 
was evidently intended to be worked by a system of 
_ muscles, and that the system of muscles was as obvious- 
ly made to work the bones, and that the system of nerves 
was plainly made with reference both to bones and 
muscles. Each of these systems is very complicated, 
and each complete in itself; and yet, without the combi- 
nation of the three systems, the human structure would 
have been incapable of action. If it could, by any pos- 
sibility, be supposed that random chance or blind neces- 


118 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


sity could have arranged either one of these beautiful 
and complex systems, the probability that two other sys- 
tems, of equal beauty, and order, and adaptation, should, 
in the same way and at the same time, be formed, and 
combined with it, is, beyond all calculation, so completely 
against such supposition, that, in any other case, the 
man who should assign such effects to such causes, 
would not be considered sane. 

We shall now pass on to another interesting view of 
the human frame, and consider the means by which it 
is preserved in strength and vigor, for a number of 
years together. This will furnish us, if I mistake not, 
with additional proofs, and those of the most striking 
kind, of intelligence and design in the marvellous con- 
struction and working of the various apparatus which 
combine to form the human frame. In unorganized 
masses, such as rocks, or minerals, the same particles 
may remain for ages; but there is this remarkable pe- 
culiarity of organized bodies, whether of the vegetable 
or animal kingdom, that the particles which compose 
them are never stationary, and the bodies themselves 
are constantly the subjects of change. At no two mo- 
ments of our lives do our bodies contain exactly the 
same identical particles. There is a constant motion, a 
perpetual waste. No part of the human frame, howev- 
er solid, is exempt from this. Every bone, every mus- 
cle, every nerve, every gland, is constantly wasting. 
Whether the particles of matter which have passed into 
the composition of an animal body, are incapable of sus- 
taining the vital action beyond a given time, or whether 
it be a law of that mysterious state of being which we 


LECT. 1II.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 119 


call life,—whatever be the cause, the fact is ascertained; 
by organs adapted to the express purpose, the refuse of 
organization is continually thrown off from the human 
frame, and poured into the common reservoir of matter, 
the great storehouse of nature. How, then, is this piece 
of wonderful mechanism repaired and kept in order? 
How is all its waste of wear and tear supplied? If it is 
every moment losing a portion of its substance, which 
is become unfit to be retained in the system any longer, 
how is it so renewed as to keep up its bulk, and form, 
and strength? If in any of your machinery, after you 
have taken all due precaution for its preservation, by 
constructing it of proper materials, diminishing the 
friction, and guarding against accident, a part wears 
out by constant use, you have no means of keeping the 
machine in proper action but by supplying anew wheel, 
or piston, or lever, or adding a new part in place of that 
which has been rendered unfit for use. But this isa 
poor contrivance, compared with the admirable expedi- 
ent which is adopted to supply the waste of the human 
machine. It is by the introduction of new matter from 
the world without us, in such a manner and in such 
portions as are necessary, and by the most astonishing 
contrivances for the distribution of this new matter, 
through every part of the human frame, and to every 
point where decay renders renovation requisite. This 
is a process at once so wonderful, and so much to our 
purpose, that we must beg your attention to a few partic- 
ulars connected with this interesting subject. 

We have already noticed that the supply, to recruit 
this continued waste, must be procured from without. 


a 


120 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GoD, [LECT. I1f. 


The world in which we live is the great storehouse 
from which all the materials are drawn. All the in- 
numerable and diversified particles of matter, that have 
built up every animal frame, and constructed every veg- 
etable since the commencement of their respective kinds, 
have been derived from this great repository ; and while 
the generations of every living thing have suecessively 
perished, here are still in being the same numerical 
particles ; all the changes and combinations of the nu- 
merous bodies which have existed in the mineral, veg- 
etable, and animal kingdoms, have not destroyed a sin- 
ole atom, nor added one to the original stock. It is not, 
however, from the earth direetly that the human body 
receives its nutrition, but from substances already or- 
ganized; from seeds, fruits, herbage, and the flesh of 
birds, beasts, and fishes. But it is remarkable that, 
though organized bodies afford the requisite nutrition, 
their organization must be destroyed, a complete decom- 
position take place, and new combinations formed, be- 
fore the particles which composed them are competent 
to take their station in the human frame. As this struc- 
ture is composed of very different materials, portions of 
matter corresponding with each must be furnished; 
there must be particles of a peculiar kind for the bones, 
muscles, fat, skin, hair, nails, and many other parts. 
The various materials for renovating all these constitu- 
ents of our frame are found in our food; but with the 
discoveries of modern chemistry, and its most refined and 
elaborate processes, there is no possibility of extracting 
these substances from what we take as the elements of 
nutrition. It is by a chemistry infinitely more refined 


ye ~ 


LECT. IlI.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 12] 


than human skill can boast, that this is constantly, and 
with the greatest facility and certainty, accomplished. 
The first stage of this curious and necessary process 
consists in grinding down the material of nutrition, and 
reducing it into a pulp. I cannot conceive how any 
one can attentively consider the mechanism of the mouth 
alone, without recognizing a Divine Intelligence, in 
forming this apparatus and adapting it to its end. First, 
look atthe teeth: can any thing be imagined more suita- 
ble to the purpose ? Their position is just where they are 
needed; in the very aperture by which the food is re- 
ceived and the process commenced. Their relative sit- 
uation, and size, and office, also look much like design. 
Several teeth, sharp and cutting, are placed in the front 
of the mouth, to separate a portion for mastication ; 
then a nnmber of others, broad and strong, called, from 
their office, “the grinders,” placed just where the jaw has 
most power of comminution. One jaw only would be 
useless; there are therefore a pair, acting like the blades 
of a pair of shears, or the upper and nether mill-stones. 
The cutting and the grinding teeth are ranged just op- 
posite each other. Take notice how hard they are, and 
how firmly fixed, so as to work for a long course of 
years. Look atthe beautiful enamel which covers them, 
and which is peculiar to the teeth. Why should all 
the bones, besides, be covered with a membrane, but 
these with a substance so hard as to strike fire with 
steel? In every one of these particulars is there not the 
most evident design, and that of a highly beneficial 
character? But all this provision would be useless, 
without the means of moving the jaws in several direc- 


122 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


tions. These means, however, are not wanting ; the 
jaws are capable of six different movements, upwards 
and downwards, forwards and backwards, right and 
left, by means of muscles attached to them for that pur- 
pose; some of them working in a very curious way, 
and several acting in every motion of. the jaws. By 
the movements of which the tongue is capable, the food 
is placed in different positions, to facilitate the process 
of mastication. But moisture is necessary; and moist- 
ure is provided. About the jaws and tongue there are 
many glands placed, the office of which is to secretea 
fluid; by the action of chewing, this moisture exudes, 
and, mixing with the food, assists the working of the 
jaws and tongue, in bringing it into a condition fit for 
the stomach. Now, I ask, whether there is any mill 
for grinding corn, or malt, or any other substance, that 
is constructed with an ingenuity equal to that which the 
apparatus of the mouth displays in this process? And 
if we admit intelligence, acting with reference to an end 
in the less, by what rule of reasoning ought we to ex- 
clude it from the greater ? 

The apparatus for conveying the food to the stomach 
is not less appropriate and ingenious. The mechanism 
of the many muscles employed, the elasticity of the tube, 
called the esophagus, through which it passes, the lu- 
bricated state in which this tube is kept by a liquid se- 
creted for that purpose, and its action in forcing the 
food towards its destined receptacle, are all most curious 
processes, on which we cannot stop to particularize. 
We must, however, notice one instance of most exquisite 
contrivance. At the lower and back part of the head, 


LECT. IlIl.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 123 


behind the tongue, is a funnel-shaped bag, called the 
pharynx, the wide part opening towards the mouth, the 
pipe being the esophagus, which leads down into the 
stomach. Into the upper and anterior portion of this 
bag, two holes open, by which the air passes from the 
nostrils, through another tube called the trachea, or 
windpipe, into the lungs. Into the same bag the food 
also enters, in order to pass by the esophagus into the 
stomach. But, as the trachea is placed in front of the 
esophagus, is there not great danger of the food passing 
into the lungs, and fatally obstructing their important 
function? This danger was evidently foreseen and obvi- 
ated. In the very act of swallowing, a cartilaginous 
valve, called the epiglottis, closes the aperture of the 
windpipe securely, so that the food passes easily 
and safely into the passage which conveys it to the 
stomach. But for this valve, death would be certain, 
either through inanition, if, aware of the danger, we 
abstained from food, or by instant suffocation, if we at- 
tempted to swallow. Without this valve, the new-born 
infant would perish at its mother’s breast ;—without this 
valve, the first morsel that the first man endeavored to 
swallow, would have terminated at once his being and 
his race. Hasany contrivance, resulting from foresight 

and human intelligence, ever exhibited precaution with 
more distinctness and effect ?. Who can forbear exclaim- 
ing with devout admiration, “the finger of God is 

here.” | 

By the act of deglutition, the food so far prepared is 
conveyed through the esophagus into the stomach. 
Here it undergoes another important process. Besides 


124 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


the muscular action, to which every part of the solid 
food taken into the stomach is successively exposed, by 
being brought into contact with its surface, there is in 
this organ a fluid secreted, of a most peculiar nature, 
which from its situation is called the gastric juice. This, 
it is found by experiments, is, in different animals, adapt- 
ed to the kind of food on which they respectively live, 
—whether vegetable or animal, or both. No chemistry 
can form any thing like this extraordinary liquid. -It is 
apparently the mildest of all fluids; and yet its power 
as a solvent is unequalled. In the human stomach it 
acts on vegetable and animal matter deprived of vitality, 
ina manner which is truly astonishing; and yet, on 
the living fibre, and, consequently, on the coats of the 
stomach, which, during life, contains it, it has no power. 
Did a chemist ever contrive a solvent with more evi- 
dent adaptation to the substance to which it should be 
applied, and at the same time with a nicer adjustment, 
so that it should accomplish no incidental mischief, but 
effect the intended good, and that alone? The food is 
thus converted into a pulpy liquid, called chyme. But 
the necessary process is not completed; the substance, 
thus far prepared, has to pass into a kind of second 
stomach, called the duodenum, the entrance to which is 
termed the pylorus. ‘“ Nothing in the animal economy 
is more curious and wonderful, than the action of that 
class of organs of which the pylorus affords a remark- 
able example. Ifa portion of undigested food presents 
itself at this door of the stomach, it is not only not per- 
mitted to pass, but the door is closed against it with ad- 
ditional firmness; or, in other words, the muscular 


LECT. IlI.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 125 


fibres of the pylorus, instead of relaxing, contract with 
more than ordinary force. In certain cases, or where 
the digestion is morbidly slow, or when very indigesti- 
ble food has been taken, the mass is carried to the py- 
lorus before it has been duly acted on by the gastric 
juice; then, instead of inducing the pylorus to relax, in 
‘order to allow of its transmission to the duodenum, it 
causes it to contract with so much violence as to pro- 
duce pain, while the food thus retained in the stomach 
longer than natural, disorders the organ; and if the di- 
gestion cannot ultimately be performed, that disorder 
goes On increasing until vomiting is excited, by which 
means the load that oppressed it is expelled. .The py- 
lorus is a guardian placed between the first and the 
second stomach, in order to prevent any substance from 
passing from the former until it is in a condition to be 
acted on by the latter; and so faithfully does this guar- 
dian perform its office, that it will often, as we have seen, 
force the stomach to reject the offending matter by vom- 
iting, rather than allow it to pass in an unfit state: 
whereas, when chyme, duly prepared, presents itself, it 
readily opens a passage for it into the duodenum.”* 
How serious would have been the mischief resulting to 
the whole frame, if some such expedient had not pre- 
vented the too early transference of the contents of the 
stomach to its next stage? On this our health and 
strength in a great measure depend. And can it be 
believed, that so necessary and beneficial an arrange- 
ment is the result of accident and undesigning necessi- 


* Library of Useful Knowledge—Anmat Puystoxoey, p. 41. 


oye 5 


126 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. II. 


ty? Is not the wisdom that built the human frame ap- 
parent here? 

But the process goes on; and as the substance now 
ealled chyme moves forward, it receives. other changes 
from peculiar fluids, secreted just in the proper place, 
and applied just at the proper time; the principal of 
which appears to be the bile, prepared by the liver, and 
exuded by a duct, so as to mix with the chyme in the 
duodenum. Another change is the consequence of this; 
its purest portions then separate into chyle, a cream- 
like liquor, which, passing slowly along the intestines, 
gradually disappears, being absorbed by the lacteals, an 
innumerable quantity of hair-like vessels, which, uniting, 
pass, by a circuitous route, into the thoracic duct, the 
contents of which are poured into a large vein commu- 
nicating with the heart. The chyle thus mixes with 
the blood, and is then prepared for circulating through 
the system. How truly admirable are those processes ; 
how wonderful and complicated the apparatus; how ex- 
act all the arrangements by which the food we eat, 
whether vegetable or animal, seeds or fruits, is convert- 
ed into that vital fluid which ministers nutrition to the 
whole system, and supplies its constant waste! What 
ehemical laboratory, with its furnaces, and crucibles, 
and alembics, all in full action, can give stronger proofs 
of intelligence and design? 

But we must notice, in the next place, though with a 
far greater attention to brevity than the subject deserves, 
the manner in which the preparation thus formed is 
distributed through the system. The whole circulation 
of the blood depends on the heart. Centrally situated 


LECT. I1l.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 127 


in those domains, every part of which itis to supply 
with aliment, and that without intermission, it is well 
secured as within the walls of a citadel, and is furnish- 
ed with a case which protects it, keeps it lubricated, and 
affords room for its constant play. The heart isa strong 
muscle, of a very peculiar kind, constructed with the 
most obvious design of performing the important fune- 
tion assigned to it. It is a kind of double organ, con- 
sisting of two parts and sets of apparatus, which per- 
form distinct offices. These two parts, however, ate 
not like the pairs of organs and limbs which we possess, 
such as two eyes, two ears, and two hands, each one of 
which is completely independent of the other, and ca- 
pable of performing separately the full office of that or- 
gan or limb. But, though it appears possible that the 
right and left portions of this organ might have acted 
separately, yet both are absolutely necessary, and their 
union probably gives strength to the structure and pow: 
er to itsmovement. Each portion of the heatt is furnished 
with two cavities, an auricle and ventricle; and each 
portion has a large artery and vein communicating with 
it. Each part also superintends a circulation of its 
own: ‘To the right, is assigned the circulation of the 
whole mass of blood through the lungs; and to the left, 
its distribution through all the other parts of the body. 
The venous blood, which, after circulating through the 
system, becomes of a dark purplish color, and is inca- 
pable of supporting life, enters the right portion of the 
heart by the vena cava, and is sent through the lungs 
by the pulmonic artery; the purified stream passes into 
the left portion of the heart by the pulmonic veins, and 


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; 128 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, Lec Ill. 


is propelled through the aorta, and thence by the sinatler 
arteries through the whole system. The proofs of a 
surpassing wisdom, in the construction and. functions of 
the heart, are many-and striking; we can satis glance 
at a few. 

How can it be imagined, that the peculiar irritability 
of the heart, and its alternate contraction and dilatation, 
can be an accidental thing? Without these functions, 
life could not be carried on; and these peculiarities no 
other muscle possesses. As the blood enters, the right 
auricle of the heart expands, by its peculiar sensibility 
to the presence of this fluid it contracts, and propels it 
into the right ventricle; as the auricle contracts, ‘the 
ventricle enlarges, and, excited in its turn by a sudden 
stroke, it sends its contents through the pulmonic artery 
into the lungs. On the left side, a similar process goes 
on with the blood received from the lungs and driven 
through the aorta. Who can bring himself to believe 
that, by any accidental concurrence of various particles 
of matter, by any “affinities” or “analogies,” such an 
organ should be formed, with parts so distinct yet uni- 
ted, and endowed with a power of alternately contract- 
ing and expanding, so remarkable yet so necessary, 
performing its motions with such a regularity and con- 
stancy, for so many years, day and night, by its own 
power of action, altogether independent of our will 2 
Why should it have auricles and ventricles, each movy- 
ing in its own due time? Why should the arteries and 
veins be so placed, as to keep the venous and arterial 
blood in separate chambers? Why should this muscle 
only have just such power,—and why should its action, 


LECT. 111.] FROM THE WORKS oF NATURE, 12972 


a very short suspension of which would be fatal, be ren- 
dered, differently from the greater part of the muscles, 
independent of the will? How can we, without shutting 
our eyes, fail to perceive those distinct marks of benev- 
olent design which all this exhibits 2 

And how wisely is the venous blood prevented from 
mixture with the arterial, when both are in the same 
organ, and that at the same time? The most injurious 
consequences would ensue, if they were not kept dis- 
tinct. The cavities which are the receptacles of this 
fluid, in its two different conditions are separated by a 
fleshy wall, which allows of. no communication.* No 
two liquids, the mixure of which is undesirable, are ever 
kept separate with more evident design and care. 

What is a more evident proof of contrivance and de- 
sign, than when vapor or fluid is intended to pass in one 
direction only, a valve is so placed as to permit its course 
freely in this direction, and to close and effectually pre- 
vent its return? You are familiar with such construc- 
tions ; you know, by daily experience, that the utility of 


* A case is mentioned by Richerand, of very singular confor- 
taation of the heart, in which the blood was allowed to pass from 
the left to the right ventricle, as it was found on dissection. By 
another peculiarity, the impure blood was not transmitted to the 
brain, so as to disturb its vital excitement; but the patient, when 
brought to the hospital, “ was remarkable for the lividity of his 
complexion, the turgescence of the vessels of the conjunctiva, and 
the thickness of his lips, which, like the rest of his face, were of 
a dark color, his respiration was laborious, his pulse irregular, 
he could not utter two words in succession, without taking breath , 
and was obliged to sleep in a sitting posture.”—Richerand’s Phys- 
lology, pp. 151, 152, ed. 3d. 

7 


180 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


such an invention is quite equal to its ingenuity; you 
are aware that the whole working of many an impor- 
tant piece of machinery depends on a valve. And was 
there not one also, who knew that all the machinery of 
life depended on the position and efficient working of a 
valve? In almost all the vessels which convey a liquid 
to any part of the human frame, this expedient may be 
found; in the veins, the lacteals, and lymphatics; but 
there are none, the office of which is more important, 
and in which the precaution of intelligence is more im- 
pressively exhibited, than in the valves of the heart. 
When the dark venous blood has reached the right ven- 
tricle of the heart, and this by a sudden contraction emp- 
ties itself into the pulmonic artery, to send it to the lungs, 
what is to prevent its expelling a large portion of it into 
the auricle from which it received it? Here a valve is 
placed, called, from its shape, the tricuspid valve, fasten- 
ed, most curiously and strongly, by fine tendons, to the 
sides of the heart. No sooner is the blood forced from 
the ventricle than it drives back the valve and closes 
this passage, and the only way by which this vital 
stream can go, is the right way; it then proceeds with- 
out obstruction through the artery to the lungs. But 
here occurs another difficulty to be provided for; as 
soon as the propelling action of the right ventricle ceases, 
the pulmonic artery, which has received the blood, acts 
in such a manner to assist in its propulsion, as would, if 
no provision had been made, force much of it back into 
the ventricle: here another set of valves suddenly rise, 
and forbid a retrograde movement, and the blood pro- 
ceeds at once into the lungs. Similar results are pro- 


LECT. III.| FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 131 


duced by the mitral valve of the left side of the heart, 
and the sygmoid valves of the aorta. I ask, with con- 
fidence, if there is any construction of human contri. 
vance and ingenuity more evidently precautionary and 
select, or which more demonstrably proves that a wise 
and benevolent intelligence has been employed ? 

It only remains that we take a cursory glance at the 
pipes or vessels, by which this life-maintaining fluid is 
circulated through the system. The arteries are em- 
ployed in conveying it from the heart. These vessels 
are composed of a substance, which is not only propor- 
tioned to the strength which is requisite, but which 
possesses also an elastic and muscular power to assist 
in propelling the blood. When: the first stroke of the 
blood is felt in them, they expand: this is followed by a 
re-action, which, by its contraction, assists the progress 
of the blood. First, the main pipe, the aorta, is single 
and large; in its ascent it throws out branches to all the 
upper parts of the body, and, descending, its ramifications 
proceed in a similar way, multiplying in every direc- 
tion, till they become too minute for observation. In - 
the arterial system, the following, among others, appear 
obvious instances of intention. A branch is provided 
for every part of the body. Nota speck of bone, not an 
atom of flesh, not a single point in all the interior, or in 
the whole surface of the body, is neglected. If from 
any one part, from a finger, an eye, a tooth, the requisite 
supply were withheld, it would become diseased and 
perish. Coulda reckless chance, or undesigning ne- 
cessity, have been so provident? It might happen that 
some of these slender tubes, by the constant play of the 


132 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


muscles, or by some violent effort, might suffer injury; 
what, then, would become of the part which it should 
supply? What power, but that of the great Architect, 
would have thought of causing these pipes, in their 
course, frequently to inosculate, and to separate again, so 
that if the pipe which belongs to any one part should be 
injured or destroyed, it might be supplied by another? 
And does not the manner in which these tubes are laid 
throughout the system, show a most provident care? 
If any of the large arteries should be injured by external 
violence, death would presently ensue; they are there- 
fore laid, in general, much deeper than the veins, out of 
the reach of common accidents, guarded frequently by a 
depth of flesh, or a ridge of bone. 

A similar arrangement, in most respects, exists for 
the return of blood to the heart, in just an inverted man- 
ner. At the extremities, these vessels first begin to ap- 
pear, in ramifications of exceedingly small filaments; 
they unite as they proceed, bringing back all that por- 
tion of the blood which was not required for immediate 
use, or which is now become disqualified for a place in 
the system without further purification, entering again 
by the venee cavee into the right auricle of the heart. 
Now, can any man believe, that it was all a matter of 
chance that the blood, when no longer capable of sup- 
porting life, should find its way from every extremity, 
upper and lower, to the heart, and precisely to that part 
of the heart which is furnished with an apparatus for 
throwing the blood into the lungs? And that valves 
arose accidentally in the veins, to admit the course of 
the stream only in the right direction ? 


LECT. IIl.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 133 


How peculiar must be the construction of that mind, 
or, rather, under what strange influence must it act, that 
sees in the whole process of nutrition no benevolent jn- 
telligence, nothing but unconscious physical causes in 
operation! That there should be a mouth, with all its 
appropriate furniture, as an apparatus to receive and pre- 
pare the matter from without, a tube to convey it just to 
that place, and no further, where another process must 
be carried on;—that there should be a stomach to re- 
ceive it, with its mechanical, and chemical, and vital 
functions ;—that there should be a kind of second stom- 
ach, followed by intestines, and myriads of small vessels, 
ready to absorb the milky fluid as it passes slowly on ;— 
that there should be a double heart, one part of it for 
blood which is to be prepared for circulation, the other 
for that which is prepared, provided with a system of 
arteries and veins;—that all these organs should exist in 
just such an order, and possess just the properties which 
their relative position in the nutritive system requires ;— 
that fluids, the composition of which no art can imitate, 
and without which the frame could not be supported— 
fluids, too, so very dissimilar, secreted from the same 
blood—should be found prepared and placed just where 
their action is requisite, such as the gastric juice in the 
stomach, and the bile in the liver, which in any other 
order would defeat all the purposes of nutrition ;—that 
in every point where danger or serious inconvenience 
was likely to occur, there should be an effective provis- 
ion to meet it, such as the epiglottis to render the act of 
swallowing safe, the pylorus which guards the passage 
from the stomach to the duodenum, and the valves of 


1384 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


the heart and its arteries ;—that all this should have 
been the result of mere accident, requires, certainly, a 
most enormous stretch of credulity to believe. 

There is one more view which we beg to be allowed 
to take, before we close this part of our subject; and that 
is, the degree of dependence which the working of this 
very curious machinery has on the will. As the sub- 
sistence of man, and all his intercourse with others, 
were to depend on his own voluntary efforts, it was ne- 
cessary that such an extent of muscular action should 
be placed at his command, as was requisite to all the 
motions which are necessary to such a mode of living. 
We have seen that this is exactly the case: the will has 
command over four hundred and thirty-six distinct mus- 
cles, and the number of movements thus under its con- 
trol is incalculable. But even here too much is not left 
to the mind. Instantaneous as the movement of a limb 
appears with the volition which produces it, there are 
many processes which it includes. First, as far as we — 
can perceive, there is an action of the brain: this is 
propagated in some mysterious manner, along the whole 
course of the nerve towards the part to be moved; it is 
communicated to every fibre of the muscle to be em- 
ployed, that all may act in concert; then the muscle 
swells and contracts, and the tendon acting at its extrem- 
ity moves the part in the required direction. But this 
is not all; at'the very same instant, the antagonist mus- 
cle must have information to relax and yield to the op- 
posite movement. In speaking, eating, walking, many 
muscles are brought into play at the same moment, and 
as many yield, in just the proper time. How could the 


LECT. IIl.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 135 


mind, unless it had been very different from what it is, 
have been capable, consistently with that attention which 
outward objects demand, of instantly perceiving and de- 
termining on which nerves to act, so that only the proper 
muscle should be contracted? How could it have been 
capable of managing all the details of this complex 
machinery, including so many nerves, and muscles, 
and bones? How few, comparatively, know any thing 
of the internal economy of the human frame, and yet 
how completely all can manage its machinery. When 
would an infant be capable of walking, of talking, or 
of any one voluntary action, if the whole working of 
the system were left to the mind? But how wise and 
gracious is, evidently, the arrangement which leaves 
to the mind only the volition; and that one simple act, 
in a most marvellous and mysterious manner, like 
touching a spring, instantly sets the machine in motion, 
in precisely the way intended. Is there not wisdom 
displayed, both in what is entrusted to the will, and 
what acts, not directly in obedience to it, but in depend- 
ent subordination to that part, whatever it be, which re- 
ceives the first impulse of the mind? 

There appears, also, to be equal design in the way 
in which another muscular apparatus acts, which is 
but in a small degree dependent on the will; that which 
is concerned in respiration. This must go on, what-. 
ever we are doing; it is a vital function, which cannot 
be long suspended. However we may be engaged 
with the head or the hands, asleep or awake, the lungs 
must perform their office. If the whole economy had 
been merely a matter of chance, why should the dia- 


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{36 PRooFs oF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. 111. 


phragm and the muscles of the chest work on continu- 
ally, without being set in motion or continued in action 
by the will, any more than those of the arm or head? 
But still there are many occasions when it js necessary, 
and perhaps even essential, to the safety of the body, 
that the will should have some command over the im- 
portant function of respiration. If this were not the 
case, if the muscles concerned in breathing were as in- 
dependent of the will as some others in the human 
frame, the voice would be materially affected, no sound 
could be prolonged, no additional effort could be made 
to detect an odor; obstructions could not easily be re- 
moved from the organ of smell, or expelled from the 
throat; a stream of polluting and noxious air could not, 
by a temporary suspension of the breath, be prevented 
from entering the lungs; and if, by any accident, the 
head should be immersed in a fluid, instant suffocation 
would ensue. Does not this look like a provision 
against accidents, the probable occurrence of which was 
foreseen? How can it be explained on any supposi- 
tion, besides that of intelligence and design, how, if the 
muscles of respiration were made capable of involun- 
tary action, they should be in any case subject to the 
will, or how, if the will had any command, it had not | 
the entire direction as in other cases? Do we not see 
wisdom in the rule, and no less wisdom in the excep- 
tion? Does chance or necessity ever make such in- 
telligent distinctions 2 

But some of the most important of the vital functions 
are quite involuntary, and it is well they are. When 
we have once committed the food to the stomach, we 


G 


LECT, IIIl.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. \ fae 


have nothing more to do with the many exquisite pro- 
cesses which are still necessary to prepare it, or any 
selected portions of it, for entering into the composition 
of our bodies. Neither the nervous influence, nor the 
muscular action, nor the gastric juice of the stomach, 
is at our command; the pylorus does not wait our bid- 
ding; the pancreas and the liver prepare their respect- 
ive fluids in a manner surpassing all art, without our 
knowledge or consent; the orifices of the lacteals know 
nothing of our volitions; the auricles and ventricles of 
» the heart do not perform their alternate contractions 
according to the mind’s regulation. Now there is rea- 
son for all this; the cessation of these functions, night 
or day, but for a few minutes, would be fatal to the 
whole system. How, then, is it possible not to discern 
the traces of a designing wisdom in these accurate and 
eminently beneficial adjustments, in the power which 
is given, and in the limits which are set, to the volitions 
of the mind in working the corporeal machinery ? 
Where power lodged with the will is useful or neces- 
sary, this arrangement obtains; where negligence or 
inattention would be fatal, it is taken from the will, and 
lodged where it will be exercised with the greatest 
certainty. In what way can human intelligence be 
employed, in the selection of. suitable agents, and in as- 
signing to each his proper office, and exact extent of 
action, that shall more decisively indicate the choice 
and the precautions of wisdom? 

Here then we pause, and conclude our views of the 
PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF MAN, except what more es- 
pecially refers to his RELATION TO THE EXTERNAL 


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138 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. III. 


WORLD, which will engage our attention in the next 
lecture. In the commencement of this discourse, we 
laid down a position which few, we imagine, will think 
of disputing, that “if cases of manifest intention and 
design could be adduced, there must have been an in- 
telligent Mind to form the intention, and to accomplish 
the designed end.” We proposed, therefore, to inquire 
whether any clear indications of intelligence and de- 
sign could be found in the human structure. I now 
ask, with confidence, whether we have not produced 
such instances? “We have, indeed, noticed but a few, in 
comparison of what might have been brought forward, 
and on these we have but briefly glanced; but they are 
such as are, I trust, sufficient to produce conviction in the 
candid and inquiring mind. We have taken a view of 
three distinct systems in the construction of the human 
frame, that of the bones, the muscles, and the nerves; 
each system containing a separate mechanism of the 
most curious kind, and evidently adapted to the per- 
formance of its peculiar office, each complete in itself, 
but each useless without the others, and all combined 
as a whole to accomplish one end. We have also no- 
ticed some of the many elaborate processes by which the 
frame is renovated, by the introduction of new matter 
from without; and have seen in the apparatus of the 
mouth, the stomach, the intestines, the heart with its ar- 
teries and veins, the same exhibition of many separate 
and distinct parts, some of them of very complicated 
structure, all working to one end, as if each were en- 
dued with intelligence. _We have noticed, also, the 
very manifest selections of forethought and wisdom in 


LECT. IIl.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 139° 


those parts and processes which are under the direction 
of the will, and those which are not; and here we close 
this part of our case. And now I appeal to reason,— 
to. candor,—to justice, whether the witnesses which I 
have produced, many and various as they have been, 
have not borne testimony, the most ample and decisive, 
in proof of the existence of a Divine Intelligence ? 
With the exquisite machinery of the human frame 
before us, in the great complexity of its parts, and the 
beautiful harmony of its working, with the number and 
variety of its striking adaptations, beneficial arrange- 
ments, and necessary precautions, how unsatisfactory, 
how unmeaning, how frivolous is the language of the 
atheistic philosophy. ‘If again it be asked what ori- 
gin we give to beings of the human species 1—We re- 
ply, that, like all other beings, man is a production of 
nature.’ * There is an ambiguity in this expression, 
which may prevent the whole absurdity of sucha prop- 
osition from being instantly perceived. ‘‘ Nature’ is 
a term so often employed by those who believe in a 
Supreme Being, as a personification of the divine 
agency, that many may feel much less shocked by 
such an annunciation, than they would, were it not for 
such an ambiguity. The atheist means by it matter— 
nothing else; he says that mere unconscious, unintelli- 
gent matter, by its own powers and properties, made 
man what heis! That is, that not one of the mnume- 
rable indications of contrivance and precaution which 
the human frame presents, is the result of design. It 


* System of Nature—Vol. I. p. 139. 


140 pRoors or THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. 111. 


is all just as it happened. It was not intended that the 
bones should support the body, nor that the joints should 
admit of motion, nor that the synovial secretion should, 
by lubricating them, prevent their friction, nor that the 
muscles should move the bones, nor that the nerves 
Should set the muscles in action; it was not designed 
that the teeth should chew, nor that the esophagus 
Should convey food to the Stomach, nor that a kind of 
valve should cover the larynx, to prevent suffocation 
every time we swallow; it was not intended that the 
gastric juice should have any thing to do with diges- 
tion, nor the liver with the formation of chyle; it was 
not intended, notwithstanding all the mechanism of the 
heart, that it should have any thing to do with the blood, 
that it should beat, or by its partition, Separate the ve- 
nous from the arterial] blood, nor that the arteries and 
veins should have any share in the circulation of the 
blood! All this, and a thousand things as contradic: 
tory, atheism means by saying, that “man is a produc- 
tion of nature ;” that is, that all the exquisite and com- 
plicated machinery of his frame, came together in just 
such positions and combinations accidentally! Is this 
an explanation? Is it not the utterance of an absurdity 
at which reason revolts? 'To what purpose is it to in- 
troduce “necessity,” to tell us of “the necessary laws 
of nature?” Does it account for any thing to say, that 
it is so because it necessarily is so? Does not the 
very necessity to which atheism ascribes the arrange- 
ment and formation of all things, suppose that every 
effect must have a cause appropriate to the kind of 
effect produced, and adequate to its production? “ Ne. 


LECT. III.| FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 141 


cessity,” it says, “is the constant and infallible connec- 
tion of causes with their effects.”* “There can be no 
effect without a cause.” + But what cause can be as- 
signed for the effects which we have ‘Instanced, that 
does not include the agency of an Intelligent Being ? 
There are no properties of matter to which systematic 
arrangement, provisions of a precautionary nature, and 
adaptation of means to the accomplishment of an end, 
can be assigned. It would be as reasonable to talk of 
building a house by syllogisms, or clearing a forest 
without any physical effort, by the sole agency of met- 
aphysics. For such effects as those which the physical 
structure of man exhibits, there is no cause appropriate, 
there is no cause that can possibly be adequate, that 
does not possess knowledge, foresight, and wisdom. 

I appeal therefore to you, among my sceptical hear- 
ers, who profess to be inquirers after truth; to all of 
you who are not determined to see no evidence, how- 
ever clear, which makes against your present opinions, 
and to resist proof, however strong and palpable, which 
does not favor your unbelief;—I appeal to you, whether 
you can bring yourselves to believe that a number of 
particles of matter, at some certain time should have so 
arranged themselves, or been brought together by any 
“analogies,” “affinities,” or “aptitude to attraction,” as 
to produce the arrangement of bones, and muscles, and 
nerves, and at the same time all the digestive and cir- 
culating apparatus, so that the teeth, the throat, the 
stomach, the liver, the pylorus, the duodenum, the lae- 


* System of Nature—Vol. I. p, 89. t Vol. Lp. 88, 


142 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. ITI. 


teals, the thoracic duct, the two-fold heart, with its valves 
and arteries, and veins, and ten thousand nice and neces- 
sary adjustments, should have been made, all just of 
the right kind, and in the right place, so as to form a 
living human body ?—and, moreover, that just at the 
same time and place, another set of particles, ignorant 
of what their fellows had done, set about a similar 
work, and made another human body as complete, ex- 
cept that it was a female, a « help meet” for man 7— 
and that they were not, at least one of them, produced 
in the first stage of infancy, but at that degree of matu- 
rity which enabled them at once to provide for them- 
selves? I cannot forbear Saying that it appears to me 
that the man who can believe all this, can believe any 
thing which a system requires; and that there is no 
fable of pagan mythology, no delusion of the Arabian 
impostor, no legend of the dark ages of popery, no ex- 
travagance of modern fanaticism, that can surpass the 
absurdity of such a belief 

Let, then, the humble Christian rejoice, whose oppor- 
tunities of learning have been few, who may have but 
small acquaintance with science, who is not qualified 
to enter into the subtleties of endless disputation, that 
there are proofs of the existence of a Supreme Being, 
to which he can always have access. He needs not 
an acquaintance with the rules of logic, or the abstrac- 
tions of metaphysics: let him place his hand on the 
beating of his heart, let him bend a finger or move a 
foot, and ask the bold denier of his Maker to give a 
satisfactory account of the first origin of such surprising 
mechanism. In every sense, in every limb, in every 


LECT. III.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 143 


motion, let him behold, with adoring gratitude, the visi- 
ble and constant proofs of the existence of his Father 
and his God. 

And, finally, how well adapted is the view which we 
have taken of the human frame, to encourage the meek 
and lowly in heart, when oppressed with a sense of the 
greatness of the Divine Majesty, and of their own com- 
parative insignificance. He who has formed worlds, 
and suns, and systems, whose “ greatness is unsearch- 
able,” and “his ways past finding out,” has employed 
the same power and wisdom in the construction of every 
part of your frame. Can he that formed you, be un- 
mindful of you? If you are the product of his power, 
can you be beneath his notice? Are not all the be- 
nevolent provisions, and beautiful arrangements, and 
methods taken to ward off danger, and to minister to 
your comfort, proofs of his care? “ Cast,” therefore, 
“all your care on him who careth for you.” He, 
whose ineffable glories dazzle the seraphim of heaven, 
and awe the loftiest spirits of the celestial world, has 
shown his kindness and his care in every nerve, in 
every muscle, in every joint of your mortal frame, and 
cannot, after so much wisdom and _ power, displayed in 
your formation, forget you, or disdain to notice you. If 
he frown, it is on the proud and the haughty, and “the 
wicked, who forget God.” Be assured, and triumph in 
the assurance, that “the High and Holy One, who in- 
habits eternity,” ever dwells “ with the humble and the 
contrite in heart.” 


LECTURE IV. 


PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, FROM THE 
WORKS OF NATURE, CONTINUED.--OBJECTIONS 
ANSWERED. 


PSALM Civ. 24.—“o LORD, HOW MANIFOLD ARE THY 
WORKS! IN WISDOM HAST THOU MADE THEM ALL,” 


Tue subject of this psalm is the Creator and his 
works, On these topics its pious author expatiates with 
much feeling, and at some length. Taking this sacred 
ode merely as a literary composition, it possesses ex- 
cellencies of the highest order, which none who have 
a taste for the beauties of nature, can read without satis- 
faction and pleasure. . The psalmist speaks of the in- 
visible Jehovah in figures borrowed from some of the - 
most splendid and magnificent of his works. His 
“garment” is the “light” of heaven, his “chariot” is 


LECT. IV.] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF Gop. 145 


“the clouds,” his going forth is on the « wings of the 
wind,” the tempest and the lightning are the messen- 
gers of his will. He is the divine architect who built 
the earth, and made its foundations sure, “that it should 
not be moved;” who stretched out the heavens as a 
canopy, who covered the earth with the ocean as a 
robe, and gave to the sea its bounds, “that it should not 
pass over.” This glorious being the psalmist contem- 
plates as presiding over the whole economy of nature, 
pervading it by his presence, upholding it by his power, 
and, by his unremitted energy, producing all its diver- 
sified appearances. He hears him in the roar of the 
thunder, and the whisper of the breeze; he sees him in 
all the beauties and the splendors of creation. It is he 
who pours out the sea, waters the earth with its exhala- 
tions, bids springs rise in the valley, and sends forth 
their streams for the fowls of the heavens, and the beasts 
of the field. The inhabitants of the air, the earth, and 
the ocean, are dependent on his care; all the produc- 
tions of the globe are the gifts of his bounty; the lumi. 
naries of heaven are the appointments of his mercy. It 
is after a brief survey of the benevolence and wisdom 
which nature exhibits, that he exclaims, “O Lord, how 
manifold are thy works; in wisdom hast thou made 
them all; the earth is full of thy riches,” * 


* Such is the God of the bible, the God of all the pious Jews 
of old, and of all devout Christians in the present day. “To 
whom, then, will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye com- 
pare unto him?” asks the prophet. There is no object in nature 
that can resemble him, since he is the only Creator, and all other 
beings are creatures; he only is infinite, all others are finite, 


10 


146 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


It is from these works that we derive the argument 
of this and the preceding lecture, for the existence of an 
intelligent Creator; they are such as canbe assigned 
to no other cause. Our object is to prove that there 
are such manifestations of mind in the works of nature, 
as cannot be attributed to mere physical causes, as com- 
pel us, by the soundest deductions of reason, to believe 
in the existence of an Almighty Being, distinct from 


He is the one eternal, self-existent, immutable being, who “ fills 
heaven and earth.” To speak of his glory and majesty we must 
employ terms, make use of figures and resemblances, taken from 
the works of his hands. Now, what would any reasonable man 
think of a person, who should select some part of a figurative 
representation, employed in one place, and part of a metaphysical 
description in another place, who thus should take several parts 
from several distinct places of the Scripture, in which the Divine 
Being is spoken of in figurative language, and putting together, 
literally, these detached and incongruous parts of different meta- 
phors, should make a monster of his own imagination, get it en- 
graved, and writing under it, ‘‘ The God of the Jews and Chris- 
tians, the Great Jehovah, or the Trinity in Unity,” should exhibit 
and circulate it as the means of support to an atheistic creed 7— 
W ould not every man, possessed of the least glimmer of reason, 
or making any pretensions to integrity, think such dishonesty, 
such palpable falsehood, such shameless absurdity, equalled only 
by its profaneness, too glaring to catch the most simple, too dis- 
honorable to be tolerated, even by the most confirmed and invet- 
erate opposer of Christianity? Yet this has been done, and the 
profane caricature set in the windows of a most public place in 
the metropolis, fo gain attention; it has, also, found its way to 
Bradford, and, I-doubt not, to many other places. Now, is there 
one of my fellow-townsmen, whatever be his creed, is there a 
man living, who has any sense of reason and justice, who would 
not blush for a man, who could have recourse to such an artifice, 
who would not be ashamed of a cause that needed such support ? 


Se tt i a De ea a Shah Oe eel apa gt en 


LECT. Iv.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 147 


matter and superior to nature, “of whom, and through 
whom, and to whom are all things,” In doing this, 
we have declined taking the wide range which nature 
offers in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, 
and have confined ourselves to one single department. 
All are rich in proofs of the existence of a wise, and 
benevolent, and all-powerful Creator; but we have se- 
lected Man. 

We have already, in examining his physical struc- 
ture, exhibited many instances, which we think every 
mind, not strongly biassed by the prejudices of a favorite 
system, must acknowledge to be convincing proofs of 
the existence of such a being ;. we shall now proceed to 
consider MAN IN RELATION TO THE WORLD WHICH HE 
INHABITS. And this view will corroborate all that we 
have before stated of evident desi gn in the formation of 
man, and show also that the same marks of intelligence 
and wisdom are to be found extending to everything 
which has relation to his existence and welfare. The 
nature of the argument is the same with that which we 
have hitherto employed, but somewhat extended. We 
have already seen, that, in the composition of our cor- 
poreal structure, there are evident and mutual adapta- 
tions of parts to each other, combined with marvellous 
arrangements of complex machinery, working with 
admirable simplicity and certainty; we shall now en- 
deavor to show that there are arrangements in nature, 
of a very extensive kind, which exhibit the same adapt- 
ation to the condition of man, and the mode of his ex- 
istence. We think we can prove, that there is as plain 
and irresistible evidence of the adaptation of man to 


be tte 


148 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. Iv. 


external nature, and of external nature to man, as can 
be seen in any two separate things that have ever been 
made for each other, and with a view and design to 
each other, by the wisdom and ingenuity of man. 

If we see a house, capacious and elegant, the archi- 
tecture of which is beautiful, and its conveniences com- 
plete; if we see every thing in it, and about it, adapted 
to the wants and habits of those who are to occupy it; 
if we see, adjoining it, a garden furnished with vegeta- 
bles, and fruits, and flowers, a good supply of water 
brought within the walls of the residence, and every 
thing that can give shelter, and safety, and comfort ; we 
conclude immediately, that in all these accommodations 
there was design, that the express object in view, was 
to furnish a suitable residence for a family ; and, more- 
over, that whoever built, and designed, and arranged 
the whole, was well acquainted with the wants and 
wishes of its future inhabitants, and with what would 
secure them from harm, supply their needs, and afford 
them pleasure and enjoyment.. Now, we think that it 
may be made evident, that the fitting up of this world, 
with its furniture and accommodations, indicate, much 
more strongly, the intentions of a wise and benevolent 
being, and prove the existence of one well acquainted 
with the nature and constitution of man, with all that 
was necessary to his safety and his comfort. Who, 
possessing a knowledge of the laws of hydrostatics and 
pneumatics, if he saw a ship, with its hollow interior, 
made of buoyant materials, fitted up with masts and 
sails, could doubt for a moment, even if he had never 
seen such an object before, that the vessel was con- 


LECT. Iv.| FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 149 


structed with a design that it should float on the water, 
be-impelled by the wind, and guided by the rudder? 
Suppose a person well versed in the various branches 
of natural philosophy, and the practical use and com- 
bination of the mechanical powers, introduced, for the 
first time, to one of your mills, to inspect the whole 
process by which you generate and apply power to the 
working of machinery; could he hesitate, for a moment, 
in concluding, not only that the boiler and the engine, 
with its pneumatic apparatus, its tubes and valves and 
pistons, and the shafts and frames of the mill-work, 
were all made expressly for each other, but that the 
whole was fitted up by some person well acquainted 
with the powers of mechanism, and with the properties 
of the air and the laws of vapor, and that it was con- 
structed with especial reference to these powers and 
properties? Now, we intend, in a few instances, to 
show that such is the most accurate adaptation existing 
between the furniture of this globe, and the constitution 
of man, and that in so many particulars, that it is im- 
possible that it should be accidental ; that the most inti- 
mate acquaintance with the powers of nature, is obvious 
in the structure of man, and that, in the various and 
nice adjustments between the working of the human 
machinery and the constitution of nature, the most per- 
fect wisdom, and the most evident design, are displayed, 
and that to a degree far greater than can be observed 
in all the ingenious arrangements of human skill to 
which I have referred, 

The first instance which I shall produce, is the ap- 
petites which indicate man’s wants, and the provision 


150 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


which nature affords to supply them. We have already 
had occasion to notice the continual renovation which 
the corporeal structure requires, by the introduction of 
new matter into the system. But how shall it be ascer- 
tained when this new matter should be taken in, and 
in what quantities, and whether it should be solid or 
liquid, or in what relative proportion? This is a 
problem requiring such an intimate knowledge of the 
whole interior economy of man, that, if its solution 
were left merely to the mind, it would be extremely 
difficult to the ablest and most experienced physiologist, 
to most it would be utterly impossible. And yet, not 
only our comfort, our bodily and mental vigor, depend 
on this, but even the continuance of our mortal exist- 
ence. We see, therefore, the same wisdom displayed, 
in not entrusting the management of so important an 
affair merely to the decisions of the mind, as in the ap- 
propriate distribution of power to the will, or to some 
vital principle, independent of the will, in working the 
muscles of the human frame. One of the highest efforts 
of ingenuity, in the construction of machinery, is to 
give it a self-regulating power. This is precisely the 
case in the human system, and shows the wisdom that 
was employed in its formation. We have internal 
monitors, faithful to their trust, and vigilant in the dis- 
charge of their office, that warn us when it is necessary 
that aliment should be taken. At first, the hint is gen- 
tle, and for a time may be disregarded, but the admo- 
nition is urged with greater force, the remonstrance 
becomes so pressing that it must be complied with, or 
great bodily suffering is the result. When solid food 


‘LECT. IV.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE.: 151 


is requisite, we feel hunger, the proximate causes of 
which it is difficult to ascertain, but the power of which 
we cannot long resist. Whether it arises from me- 
chanical or chemical causes, whether from a nervous 
influence acting directly on the stomach, or the sym- 
pathy of that organ with the other parts of the material 
fabric, we know that weakness, lassitude, pain, and a 
strong desire for food ensue; and that when a sufficient 
quantity of food has been taken into the stomach, the 
calls of hunger cease, to be renewed only when the 
system again requires aliment. So great a proportion 
of the human body consists of fluids, and so constant 
are the processes of evaporation by insensible perspira- 
tion, and of internal exhalation, that a frequent supply 
of liquid is absolutely necessary. When this supply is 
requisite, we feel a sensation which it is as difficult to 
explain as that of hunger, but the meaning of which 
we instantly understand. The fauces become dry and 
parched,—we thirst; the demands of this appetite are 
imperious; it is at our peril to resist them; liquid must 
be obtained, or we suffer torment. Such is the provi- 
dent wisdom by which we are constantly reminded of 
what the system needs; and were the voice of these 
monitors but duly regarded, and all intemperance in 
solid or liquid aliment avoided, instead of the disease 
and weakness which render life miserable, how much 
more frequently would health bloom on the cheek, 
sparkle in the eyes, invigorate the whole frame, and 
add years of enjoyment to our mortal existence? 

As aliment is needed, so aliment is provided, ample in 
quantity, and appropriate in quality. It is remarkable, 


152 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


that such is the constitution of our bodies, that they can 
receive nutrition so as to maintain life only from organ- 
ized substances. All the solid aliment that we take, 
therefore, is of this nature. Though all the elementary 
substances which enter into the bodily structure abound. 
through all nature, yet there must be certain combina- 
tions of these, they must be assimilated into the organs 
of some living structure, before they are capable of act- 
ing as food and taking a part in the human system. 
There is no substance in the mineral kingdom on which 
man can live; it furnishes condiments, medicines, poi- 
sons, but aliment it cannot yield. We must therefore 
have nutrition from animal or vegetable. substances; 
which have their elementary matter already in a state of 
organization. Some animals are so constructed as to 
live entirely on vegetable matter, others have organs 
adapted only to aliment of an animal kind; man is 
capable of deriving nutrition from both. But if we feed 
on animals, these have first received their nutriment 
from vegetable substances; hence it has been justly ob- 
served that “plants are laboratories, in which nature 
prepares the food of animals.” * _ The existence of man 
is, then, intimately connected with another class of organ- 
ized beings, which are essential to its continuance, and 
which hold a middle rank between the mineral and ani- 
mal kingdoms. _ Now, look into nature, and see the suit- 
able and abundant provision which has been made. All 
the elementary substances which are requisite to repair 
the constant waste of the human structure, are found on 


* Richerand’s Physiology—p. 75. 


_ LECT. Iv.]) FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 153 


the surface of the globe in great abundance. Plants of 
numerous kinds exist, endowed with an organization 
capable of collecting and assimilating these elements, 
and thus preparing them to take their place in a condi- 
tion of still higher organization. How various and 
abundant are the grasses and herbage which the earth 
produces; how richly diversified and suitable to promote 
health and give enjoyment, are the seeds and fruits 
which grow for the use of man, adapted to every taste 
and every climate! How ample must have been the 
stock of seeds and plants which the earth first received, 
and how admirable that wisdom which not only formed 
these vegetable laboratories, but endowed them also 
with the power of reproduction! How can aman in his 
senses, when he contemplates this suitable and neces- 
sary provision to meet the wants of human beings, re- 
sist the impression of a designing wisdom and benevo- 
lence in such an arrangement? Vegetable life itself, 
even in its lowest forms, possesses a mechanism so cu- 
rious, that art cannot produce any thing like it; and all 
this inimitable apparatus in nature without us, is so per- 
fectly adapted to the still more complicated apparatus of 
our own frame, that human ingenuity may be challenged 
to produce any instance of one set of machinery made 
for another set, with more evident design than this ar- 
rangement exhibits. 

It has already been observed that the human struc- 
ture needs a considerable supply of moisture. Of near- 
ly all that we take as drink, water is the basis or vehi- 
cle; and without a constant and abundant supply of 


# 


154 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


this, vegetation could not go on. Besides the many 
important uses of water to refresh and cleanse our 
persons, to purify our clothes and dwellings, it is so 
essential to almost all the purposes of life, that if its 
supplies were withheld but for a short time, every liv- 
ing thing would perish, and the whole surface of the 
globe become a dreary scene of universal desolation. 
This essential fluid, on a sufficient supply of which ev- 
ery thing which lives on the surface of the globe is de- 
pendent, is composed of hydrogen and oxygen, united 
in a definite and invariable proportion. It is capable of 
existing in a state of solidity, as ice, and also in the form 
of vapor or gas. These several conditions depend on 
the quantity of caloric with which it is combined. If 
the law of its congelation were such that it took more 
readily the solid form of ice, its utility would, to say the 
least, be materially diminished; if an increase of tem- 
perature generated vapor with much greater facility, the 
great and salutary purposes which it now answers 
could not be realized. But such is the constitution of 
this important fluid, and such the laws of heat which 
affect its changes, that it possesses the most exact and 
beneficial adaptation to all the forms of vegetable and 
animal life. Uncombined, neither of the elements which 
enter into its composition would answer the purpose, 
though they existed separately in quite as great a quan- 
tity as at present; and if the action of other substances 
to which it is exposed were capable of readily affecting 
its decomposition, the deficiency thus occasioned would 
have a most disastrous influence on every kind of life. 


LECT. IV.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 155 


Now, is it possible that a production so essential to man 
in so many ways, and to all organic life of every kind 
and degree, existing in just such a form, subject to just 
such laws, as should ensure its perpetuity in great suffi- 
ciency, and possessing the most complete adaptation to 
the constitution of man, could have been accidental 2 
Look again at the curious process of circulation, by 
which a constant supply of this necessary article is fur- 
nished to every part of the realms of nature. By the 
laws of heat, as they affect water, evaporation is constant- 
ly going on from the surface of the earth, from pools, 
rivers, and seas; and such is the nature of the atmos- 
phere, that a considerable quantity of water, in the form 
of vapor, can be held in suspension by it. Besides the 
immediate uses of this fluid, held in solution by the at- 
mosphere, which are very important to vegetation, by 
this means clouds are formed, and the refreshing dews 
and fertilizing showers descend. The great reservoir 
of water is the ocean; by the action of the sun’s rays on 
its surface, large quantities of water ascend in vapor 
and form clouds, which, driven over the land by the 
aerial currents, fall in rain on the earth. Wesee, then, 
a reason why so great a portion, perhaps more than two 
thirds of the surface of the globe, is covered with water; 
a much less surface would not have yielded the requi- 
site supply. “It was calculated by Dr. Halley, that 
five thousand two hundred and eighty millions of tuns 
of water were evaporated from the surface of the Medi- 
terranean sea in one summer’s day; and, according to 
Dr. Thomson, ninety-four thousand four hundred and 
fifty cubic miles of water circulate annually through the 


156 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT., IV. 


atmosphere.” * ‘Thus a circulation as necessary, and 
almost as regular, as that of the blood in the human 
system is maintained, on a scale of surprising magni- 
tude, by a machinery working incessantly, with the ut- 
most precision, and in a manner most beneficial to man, 
mostly without his knowledge, and altogether without 
his interference. Consider, then, the necessity of such a 
fluid to the continued existence and well-being of man’s 
corporeal frame, indicated by an internal monitor, which 
acts without his will or consent, and which never fails 
to remind him when the system requires liquid; and 
also the absolute necessity of water to the existence of 
every kind of food, animal or vegetable, on which man, 
by his peculiar organization, is formed to live; and 
moreover, look at the complex apparatus, working ac- 
cording to the various laws relative to heat, the state of 
the atmosphere, the currents of air, and whatever other 
agencies are employed,—and can it be imagined that 
there is no intended adaptation of the one to the other— 
that there is no wisdom of an intelligent agent employ- 
ed in this arrangement? Does chance ever work in 
this way? Or, can any man conceive that an explanation 
of adjustments so manifold, so extensive, so accurate, and 
so beneficial is given, when he is told that in all this 
there is “nothing but a succession of necessary causes 
and effects?” Might not all wisdom, all design, all se- 
lection, by precisely the same mode of reasoning, or 
rather by the same absurdity, be excluded from all 
works of human ingenuity, and the same solution with 


* Epitome of the Elementary Principles of Natural and Exper- 
imental Philosophy.—Part I. by J. Millington—p. 108. 


LECT. Iv.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. tia 


equal propriety be given for the existence of clocks, or- 
gans, and ships ? 

Let us now consider the atmosphere in which man 
lives, and the organization which has especial relation 
to it, and see what kind of adaptation there appears of 
the one to the other. The atmosphere is an invisible, 
elastic fluid, which surrounds the earth to the height of 
some miles above its surface. On every square inch 
its pressure is equal to fifteen pounds weight, which, 
Were it not for its mechanical property of pressing 
equally in all directions, would be altogether insupport- 
able; it would crush and destroy every living thing. * 
This atmosphere is the receptacle of all vapors, bears 
up or discharges the clouds, and is charged with caloric 
and the electric fluid, both essentially necessary to the 
functions of life. But it is not to its various and impor- 
tant uses in these respects, that we now refer, but to those 
qualities which adapt it to the purposes of respiration. 
Atmospheric air is a compound of two gases of a very 
different nature, and in different proportions. It con- 
tains by measure about twenty parts out of every hun- 
dred of oxygen gas, seventy-nine of azotic or nitrogen 
gas, and one of carbonic acid gas. Nitrogen is of 
itself incapable of sustaining life or supporting combus- 
tion ; one important use of this gas in the air we breathe, 
appears to be to modify the properties and action of the 
oxygen. This latter gas, though combined in atmos- 
pheric air in so small a proportion, is so essential to all 

* For the many important and beneficial effects resulting from 


the pressure of the atmosphere, see the ‘Chemical Catechism,’ 
by Parkes, ch. 2. 


158 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


life, that it has sometimes been ca!led emphatically vital 
air. In oxygen alone combustible substances burn 
with an unusual splendor, and consume with extraordi- 
nary rapidity. When inhaled into the lungs, it produ- 
ces great warmth, excitement, and increased action of 
the heart. Diluted in the proportion we have mention- 
ed, it is just adapted to the purposes of life: with a less 
quantity of oxygen, life would languish; a greater por- 
tion would soon wear out the system by over excitement, 
and produce premature decay. In this salutary propor- 
tion it exists all over the globe, wherever plants vegetate 
or animals live. | 

That the alternate reception of air into the lungs, and 
its discharge from the chest, are necessary to life, we 
all know and feel; but why it is so, has been a subject 
of very curious investigation and ingenious experiment. 
Some of the principal facts brought to light by modern 
science are the following :—When the blood, sparkling 
with. vitality, bounds through the arteries, and carries 
the precious treasure to every part of the system, it is of 
a bright crimson or vermilion red; it returns through 
the veins dark in its color, considerably exhausted of 
its energy, and charged with the refuse of organization. 
The superfluous matter must be thrown out of the sys- 
tem, and new energy must be communicated to it, be- 
fore it is again fit to circulate: if this is by any means 
prevented, we die. This salutary change is accomplished 
by bringing the atmosphere into contact with the blood, 
by which means the superfluous matter is extracted, and 
new life and color imparted to the vital fluid. The 
air breathed from the lungs is found to be of a very 


LECT. Iv.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 159 


different kind from that which is inspired; a portion of 
its oxygen has disappeared, and in its stead about an 
equal quantity of carbonic acid is present, a gas possess- 
ing very deleterious properties. Nor is the new blood, 
or chyle, poured into the common receptacle from the 
thoracic duct, prepared for circulation till it has under- 
gone the same process. The reception of the atmos- 
phere into the lungs is quite as necessary to the main- 
tenance of life as that of food into the stomach, and must 
be much more frequently taken into the system; the sus- 
pension of respiration for a few minutes, by night or day, 
would be fatal. Here, then, is a most beneficial adaptation 
to the constitution of man,.existing.in exactly the form re- 
quisite, found in ample quantity, and in every place. 
Surely this cannot be considered accidental and unin- 
tentional. 

But let us take a cursory view of the apparatus which 
exists in the internal economy of man, and the manner 
in which it works, so as to derive the requisite advan- 
tages from the external atmosphere, and we shall be- 
hold one of the most evident and striking adaptations of 
the one to the other that were ever produced, or that it 
is possible to imagine. There is, as we have already 
had occasion to notice, a communication established be- 
tween the lungs and the external air, by means of the 
trachea or windpipe; the mouth being opened, affordsa 
free passage to the air through the upper extremity of 
this tube, called the larynx, along the course of the 
trachea into the lungs; by the same course the air 
which is expired proceeds. But it may be necessary to 
breathe when the mouth is closed, or employed in mas- 


160 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


ticating the food; a passage, therefore, is provided 
through the nostrils by two apertures which open in- 
wards, just above the top of the windpipe. Thetrachea 
passes downwards into the cavity of the thorax or chest 
and then branches off in two directions, to the right and 
left portions of the lungs. Between these lies the heart, 
ever performing its vital functions. The lungs are a 
soft spongy substance, full of air-cells and blood-vessels, 
and capable of considerable expansion when filled, and 
of collapsing into a much less space when the vessels 
are emptied. The two branches of the trachea throw 
out ramifications to every part of the lungs, which ter- 
minate in innumerable air-cells. ‘The blood-vessels, at 
first imperceptibly minute, unite in each portion of the 
lungs to form the pulmonic artery and vein; the former 
connecting them with the right, and the latter with the 
left side of the heart. - From the right ventricle, by its 
contraction, the venous blood, together with the contents 
of the thoracic duct, are thrown through the pulmonic 
artery into the lungs, to each portion of which an arte- 
rial branch is given. By innumerable minute ramifica- 
tions the blood is thus spread through every part of the 
lungs, and, coming into chemical action with the air 
which has been inspired, the oxygen of the atmosphere, 
uniting with the carbon of the blood, forms carbonic 
acid gas, which at the next expiration is thrown out of 
the system, and the blood regains its power of stimula- 
ting the heart, and is again prepared for circulation. A 
celebrated chemist has calculated that, in twenty-four 
hours, nineteen thousand two hundred cubic inches of 
carbonic acid is given out, which contains more than 


LECT. Iv.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 161 


five troy ounces of carbon * By others the quantity is 
estimated much higher. A considerable portion of re- 
dundant moisture is also at the same time expired in the 
State of vapor, formed, it appears, by the union of the 
oxygen of the air with hydrogen. And by the same 
important and refined chemistry, heat is continually 
evolved, by which means a constant temperature is main- 
tained in the body, however variable be the surrounding 
medium. * 
But by what machinery is it that the lungs are kept in 
constant play ? How isit that this pheumatic apparatus 
works, so as from ten to twenty times in a minute to 


* History of Chemistry, by Dr. Thompson —Vol: IL. p. 321. 
Dr. Kidd, in his Bridgewater Treatise, states the amount of car- 
bon daily discharged from the blood to be much more. “It ap- 
pears,” he observes, “from experiments which have been made 
for the purpose, that during the process of respiration in an in- 
dividual of ordinary size and health, about 27 1-2 cubic inches of 
carbonic acid gas are given off from the lungs in the course 
of one minute; which at the end of twenty-four hours would 
amount to 39,600 cubic inches, or, in round numbers, 40,000; and 
as 100 cubic inches weigh 46 1-3 grains, 40,000 would weigh 
18,532 grains. Then, since a quantity of carbonic acid gas, 
weighing 100 grains, contains 28 grains of carbon, a quantity 
weighing 18,532 grains would contain 5,190 grains, or nearly 
eleven ounces, at 480 grains to. an ounce; so that a quantity of 
carbon equalling two-thirds of a pound in weight, is daily dis- 
charged from the blood, by means of the simple process of res- 
piration.”—p. 131. Dr. Bostock, in his ‘ Elementary System of 
Physiology,’ has not only given a comprehensive view of the as- 
certained facts relating to this important function, in all its bear- 
ings, but has also furnished a summary of experiments and opin- 
ions of the most distinguished physiologists, both British and 
foreign.—See Vol. II. ch. 7th, “ Or Respiration,” 


11 


162 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


bring the air into action with the deteriorated blood, and 
to expel its superfluous carbon? Is there any thing like 
chance or accident to be seen? The lungs are placed 
on each side of the heart, in a cavity called the thorax, 
guarded by the spinal column behind, surrounded on 
the sides by the curvature of the ribs, connected with a 
movable bone in front, called the sternum or breast-bone. 
The floor of this cavity is the diaphragm, commonly 
known as the midriff. Inthis cavity there is no vacant 
space; the external covering of the lungs is always in 
contact with the internal lining of the thorax. By 
means of the trachea, the mouth, and the nostrils, the 
lungs have always a free communication with the at- 
mosphere, and have always a portion of air in their 
vessels. From the known properties of air, whenever 
a partial vacuum is formed the remaining air expands, 
and, occupying a larger space, becomes rarefied. By 
the enlargement of the cavity of the chest, the air with- 
in the lungs dilates them to the increased dimensions, 
and the air being thus attenuated, the external atmos- 
phere rushes in through the trachea, till the equilibrium 
is restored. When the chest again contracts, the inter- 
nal air is driven out. Now there are two directions in 
which the thorax may be enlarged; in its horizontal 
diameter, by increasing the distance between the spine 
and the sternum, and between the ribs on either side ; 
and by increasing its perpendicular diameter from the 
diaphragm upwards towards the trachea. The ribs are 
of a substance and texture which admit of their bending 
with more or less of curvature, and attached to them are 
muscles capable of moving them. But how can any 


LECT. Iv.| FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 163 


motion of the ribs enlarge the cavity of the chest? Ifthey 
were fastened to the -back-bone at right angles, any mo- 
tion upwards or downwards would necessarily contract 
the space. But they are inclined downwards at an acute 
angle, so that when they are so raised as to bring them 
nearer to a perpendicular with the spine, the sternum is 
thrown forward, and the cavity by this singular contri- 
vance enlarged. But this would not give sufficient space 
to admit a proper quantity of air into the lungs; the ca- 
pacity of the chest is increased principally by enlarging 
it in a perpendicular direction. For this purpose there is 
a muscle of very peculiar formation, called the diaphragm, 
which, while it serves as the floor of the chest, dividing 
it from the stomach and intestines, is capable of such a 
motion as considerably to enlarge the thorax. Differing 
from all other muscles, its tendon is in the centre, and 
the muscle constitutes its lateral parts. The lower part 
ofthis tendon is firmly fixed to the spine, it is connected 
laterally with the ribs. The diaphragm rises upwards 
in the form of a double arch or dome, the convex part 
forming the floor of the chest, and the concave being a 
kind of roof to the abdomen. When this convex floor 
“is flattened, of course the capacity of the chest is en- 
larged; and that such an operation might give still 
greater space, the plane of the diaphragm is not perpen- 
dicular to the spine, but from the back slants upwards 
to the front; thus possessing a larger surface by its 
obliquity, and, consequently, by its depression, giving 
more enlargement to the chest. When this muscle 
contracts, as its tendon is fixed and cannot move, the 
muscle instead of being arched becomes flat. At this 


164 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


moment the abdominal muscles relax, and allow the 
viscera to move forward, which we very sensibly feel. 
At the same instant the intercostal muscles of the ribs act, 
the chest enlarges, the expansive force of the air in the 
lungs gives them a corresponding enlargement, the ex- 
ternal atmosphere immediately passes through the tra- 
chea into the lungs, and occupies the innumerable air- 
vessels. The blood from the right side of the heart 
distending its innumerable vessels at the same time, 
nothing but a thin membrane separates the air and the 
blood; sufficiently strong to prevent the fatal conse- 
quences of an escape of the blood into the air-vessels, 
and thence into the trachea, which would produce in- 
stant suffocation, and yet of sufficient tenuity to allow 
the chemical action by which the oxygen of the air 
combines with the redundant carbon of the blood. The 
number of these air-cells has been estimated at upwards 
of one hundred and seventy-four millions, and the sur- 
face which they present at more than twenty thousand 
square inches, or better than one hundred and fifty 
square feet.* Thus “a stratum of blood several hun- 
dred feet in surface, is exposed to a stratum of air still 


*“ It has been supposed by Hales, that representing the size of 
each air-cell at an hundredth part of an inch in diameter, the a- 
mount of surface furnished by them collectively would be repre- 
sented by 20,000 square inches. Keil has estimated the number of 
these cells at 174,418,615, and the surface which they present at 
21,906 square inches; and Lieberkuhn has increased it to no less 
than 1,500 cubic feet.”—Animal Physiology, p. 99. Dr. Bostock 
thinks that “ there is reason to suppose that they (i. e. these esti- 
mates ) are, in a great measure, imaginary,” but states that the 
“extent of the surface of the membrane lining the cavity of the air- 


LECT. Iv.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 165 


‘more extensive; and these two strata of contiguous 
fluids are comprehended within an organ which may ° 
easily be compressed within the compass of a few inch- 
es. To look for any parallel to this, amid the most 
masterly contrivances of science, were vain.” * A sec- 
ond or two are sufficient for the renovating process ; the 
capillary vessels of the pulmonic veins receive the blood, 
and convey it to the left side of the heart fit for circula- 
tion. But by this time more venous blood is waiting 
for the same process, and it is necessary that the carbonic 
acid gas, now formed in the air-vessels, should be ex- 
pelled. With as much precision as if endowed with 
perfect intelligence, with as complete consent as if the 
plan had been formed by mutual concert, the whole ap- 
paratus puts itself in motion to accomplish these results. 
-The muscles of the chest relax, and the elasticity of the 
ribs brings them to their former position, the diaphragm 
ceases to contract, and now the abdominal muscles are 
brought into action, the diaphragm is forced upwards, 
and the chest and the abdomen are reduced each to its 
previous and relative dimensions; the lungs are thus 
necessarily compressed, the condensed air rushes out 
through the trachea and the mouth or nostrils, and pours 
its highly carbonated stream into the atmospheric ocean, 
to form new combinations. _ Thus'this essential process 
goes on, repeated several times every minute, and many 
thousand times in the twenty-four hours is the vital 
fluid renovated—and man lives. 


vessels must necessarily be very considerable.”—Elementary Sys- 
tem of Physiology, pp. 19, 20, ed. 2d. 


* Animal Physiology—p, 99. 


166 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


Who, then, can soberly contemplate all the various 
phenomena of respiration, without a devout admiration 
of the surpassing wisdom and divine intelligence which 
they so manifestly display? Who would envy the man, 
who could view such a diversity of marvellous adapta- 
tion and beneficial arrangements without emotion? 
Who can understand the constitution, the reasonings, 
or the bewilderment of that mind that believes that all 
this has merely happened, that there has been no design 
or intention in it, that all these provisions and adjust- 
ments, on which the life and happiness of man depend, 
could have resulted from the operation of unintelligent, 
undesigning, physical causes? Here are three distinct 
adaptations, to suppose any one of which existing with- 
out a designed reference to the others, is one of those 
enormous improbabilities that defy all reason, and re- 
quire the most unaccountable credulity to entertain fora 
moment. First, here is the complete adaptation of the 
surrounding atmosphere, in which we live and move, to 
that state of the human blood which requires constant 
renovation: then, the pneumatic apparatus, so admira- 
bly constructed as to bring the oxygen of the atmos- 
phere and the carbon of the blood into chemical action ; 
and, further, the machinery adapted to work this appa- 
ratus, so that the process may constantly be going on. 
Could it, by any possibility, have been without design, 
that by such means the deleterious carbon should be 
constantly disengaged, and heat as constantly evolved to 
keep up the temperature? That such an atmosphere 
with such properties should have existed—that such 
a substance should be formed as the lungs—that it 


LECT. IV.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 167 


should have vessels so appropriate for the air and 
for the blood—that each portion of the lungs should 
have its communication with one side of the heart, 
for the reception of venous blood, and with the oth- 
er side to return the renovated fluid—that there should 
have been just such muscles as were necessary to 
move the ribs—-that the angle of the ribs with the 
spine should be just that which would admit of an 
easy enlargement of the chest—that the diaphragm 
should have been of sucha shape, and of such a power, 
and adapted work in harmonious concert with a num- 
ber of other muscles—and that all these should go on, 
repeating their ‘motions several thousand times a day, 
for the whole of our life? That a person should be 
found capable of believing this, is itself among the most 
inexplicable phenomena that can be presented to our 
notice. 

There is another very striking adaptation connected 
with the atmosphere ; that is, its capability of transmit- 
ting sounds, andthe curious formation of the ear. It is 
unnecessary to show how important is the capacity 
which we possess of hearing and distinguishing sounds, 
in how many cases our safety is connected with it, and 
_how much the happiness and improvement of society 
depend on it. Sound is produced by the vibrations of 
the particles of a body communicated to the air, and by 
the air transmitted to an organ adapted to receive them, 
Such is the anatomy of the internal parts of this organ, 
that it is impossible to give an adequate description in 
mere words; and so curious and exquisite is the con- 
struction of its various parts, that the full use of some 


168 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. Iv. 


of them has not yet been discovered. The external ear 
is a cartilaginous expansion, so constructed as to receive 
the undulations of the air, from which they pass through 
a tube, and come to a very curious combination of cav- 
ities and membranes, and bones and nervous branches, 
variously disposed, so as by the auditory nerve to con- 
vey to the brain the particular sensation. If any of this 
delicate machinery is injured, the faculty of hearing is 
impaired, if not lost. To the eye of the skilful and ex- 
perienced anatomist, it appears a structure the most 
beautiful which the mind can contemplate.* . Is not the 
supposition preposterous, that such a formation should 
occur from the casual concurrence of sundry particles 
of matter, possessing so complete an adaptation to the 
properties of the atmosphere, with reference to the 
Specific purpose of hearing, and answering an end so 
eminently beneficial ? 

The limits we have assigned ourselves will not ad- 
mit of our adverting to all the other senses, further than 
to state, that each contains a mechanism which sets all 
imitation at defiance, bears the most visible impress of 
intended adaptation to its peculiar function, and is of 
most important service to man in his intercourse with 
the external world. But there-is one which, though 
often brought forward, is so beautiful and impressive an 
instance of design and adaptation, that I cannot persuade 
myself entirely to pass it by ;—it is the organ of sight. 
Amid the innumerable wonders which surround us on 
every hand, there is not one, perhaps, which is more 
adapted to fix our attention, and to excite our admiration 


* Bell’s Anatomy.—Vol. III. p. 178. ed. 3d. 


LECT. Iv.| FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 169 


of the divine wisdom which appears in every thing we 
contemplate, than the power of vision. Of all the senses 
by means of which we hold converse with the external 
world, this appears to take the lead, in the extent of its 
office and the utility and pleasure which it yields. By 
this we become acquainted with innumerable objects, 
the knowledge of which is of the highest consequence 
to us, of which, without the aid of this sense, we could 
not have had the faintest conception. By this organ, 
we not only have perceptions of color, but learn to es- 
timate distance, form, and magnitude. In an instant 
the glance of the eye takes in ten thoysand objects, and 
runs over all the diversified appearances of an extensive 
landscape with that rapidity, that every individual part 
seems at precisely the same instant the object of percep- 
tion, each occupying its proper size and position rela- 
tive to the whole. By this means we are sensible of 
the existence and position of objects, not only at a few 
yards, but at millions of miles distant from us; we have 
a perception of what lives, and moves, and has its be- 
ing in our immediate locality on the globe which we 
inhabit, and of those mighty orbs which sail in the 
boundless ether, or, at distances to which millions of 
leagues are but a speck, illumine other systems. With- 
out the power of vision, if existence were possible, how 
contracted would be our ideas, how poor our enjoy- 
ments, how few our connections and associations.* We 

* How feelingly has the first of English poets, in his address to 
light, adverted to his own loss of sight. 

“Thus with the year 


Seasons return, but not to me returns 
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, 


170 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


can form no estimate of the immense difference which 
the possession of this sense makes in the circumstances 
of man, from viewing the infelicities of a few who are 
deprived of this advantage, but who live in the midst of 
thousands who possess it. By the constant intercourse 
with others, who possess this sense, they derive much 
of the benefit which results from it; by the kind atten- 
tion of friends who have sight, a large portion of the 
miseries of blindness is obviated, and the remainder 
considerably mitigated. But if it could have been possi- 
ble for man to exist without this sense, in what a deplor- 
able condition must he have passed his life. No inspi- 
rations of nature, from a view of its wonders and beau- 
ties, would have kindled his delight, no countenance of 
a friend beaming with kindness would have cheered 
him, no art could have been cultivated, science could 
not have existed,—exposed to accidents at every step, 
disasters would have constantly attended him, and death 
must soon have closed his suffering and joyless existence. 
But the continuance of human life would have been 
impossible. Man is not made to vegetate, he must pro- 
vide for himself, or perish ; without the power of vision, 


Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer’s rose, 

Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine ; 
But clouds instead, and ever-during dark 
Surround me! From the cheerful ways of men 
Cut off; and for the book of knowledge fair, 
Presented with a universal blank 

Of nature’s works, to me expung’d and raz’d; 
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out!” 


Paradise Lost, b. Til. v. 40—50. 


LECT. IV.| FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 171 


therefore, superadded to all the complicated arrange- 
ments of his frame, we cannot conceive of the continu- 
ance of the race of man. It is much to our purpose, 
therefore, to notice as briefly as the subject will admit, 
the arrangement by which this knowledge of outward 
objects is communicated to the mind. It is by a medi- 
um which exists in nature without us, and by a very 
curious organization within us, each possessing the 
most complete adaptation to the other, that this is ac- 
complished. This medium is light, which, flowing from 
the visible object, comes into contact with the organ of 
vision, and produces those sensations on which our 
perceptions of ‘color and form are founded. Without 
this medium vision is impossible; it is not by the ob- 
jects themselves being brought into contact with the eye 
that they are seen: they may remain at the distance of 
a few inches, or yards, or millions of miles; but por- 
tions of this medium streaming from them, and impress- 
ing the appropriate organ, convey the intelligence of 
their existence and of their visible properties; so that, 
strictly speaking, it is not the objects of vision, but the 
light proceeding from them that we see. 

Light is one of the most mysterious, the most useful, 
and the most beautiful appendages to the fitting up and 
furniture of the globe that we inhabit. It is, indeed, 
not only beautiful, but the source of all beauty in the 
material world. It is this which reveals all other ob- 
jects, and exhibits them in their size, and. proportion, 
and form. The radiance of the sky, the verdure of the 
fields, the tints of all the flowers, the lovely diversity 


172 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


of the landscape, and the various expression of the 
human countenance all depend on light. 


“ Of all material beings, first and best! 

Efflux divine! Nature’s resplendent robe ! 
Without whose vesting beauty all were wrapped 
In unessential gloom.” * 


Without entering with philosophical minuteness into 
the subject, the following are some of the most obvious 
properties of light on which vision depends. Light 
is either direct, as when it proceeds from a luminous 
body ; or reflected, as when it is thrown back from an 
object on which it has fallen. When the sun, the great 
source of light, pours around the plenitude of day, every 
object reflects, in all directions, from all points of its 
surface, a greater or less portion of the rays which fall 
on it. As light is composed of rays of all the primary 
colors, the due mixture of which constitutes its bright ap- 
pearance, by the different kinds of bodies differently color- 
ed rays are absorbed and reflected ; when all the rays but 
the red or blue, for instance, are absorbed by any body, 
and either of these are reflected, we have the perception 
of the blue or red color. The angle at which the rays 
of light are reflected from an illuminated object, is al- 
ways equal to the angle at which they fall on it, as de- 
termined by a perpendicular to its surface at the point 
of contact; objects are thus seen in the direction in 
which the reflected ray falls on the eye. Another 


* 'Thompson’s Seasons.—SuMMER.— HYMN To THE SUN. 


LECT. Iv.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 173 


equally important property of light is its refrangibility, 
by which, when it passes from one medium to another 
of different density, in a direction oblique to the surface 
of the medium into which it enters, it suffers a refrac- 
tion corresponding to the difference of the density of 
that body on which it falls, and the angle which it 
makes with its surface. By this property the rays which 
fall on every point of an object from a luminous body, 
after being reflected, may again, by passing through a 
properly refracting medium, be brought to meet ina 
point called the focus; and by the re-assembling of 
these rays in such points in due relative position, an 
image of the object is produced. Thus if the rays of 
light proceeding from any object pass through a con- 
vex lens placed in a proper position, they will form an 
image of the object at the focal distance of the lens. 
This is the principle on which the camera obscura is 
constructed ; a mirror receives the rays from surround- 
ing objects, and reflects them through a double convex 
lens into a small apartment, which is darkened to pre- 
vent the interference of other rays; the rays which pass 
through the lens are received at its focal distance on a 
surface, and all the external objects thus presented to 
the mirror, the only use of which is to give the re- 
quired direction to the rays, are perceived in their 
proper colors, and relative position, and size, and 
motions. 

Now the eye is precisely such an instrument, con- 
structed on exactly the same principles, but with a per- 
fection which no human ingenuity can reach, Through 
a small aperture the rays of light are received, which, 


174 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, |LECT. IV. 


passing through a double convex lens assisted by other 
refracting media, enter a darkened chamber, and at the 
proper distance are received on a screen, where the 
image of the external objects are correctly formed. 
But the construction of this curious and useful organ 
deserves our attention. In an elevated and command- 
ing position in the human structure, in bony cavities of 
considerable strength, are deposited two small globes, 
cushioned on a substance soft and yielding, and so at- 
tached as to admit of freedom of motion. Each of these 
optical globes is surrounded by an outer coat, of a very 
strong but flexile texture, called the sclerotica; this 
coat, however, does not completely envelope the ball 
of the eye, about one fifth of which is covered in the 
front by a transparent membrane called the cornea, 
which is also more prominent than the other parts of 
the globe, forming a portion of a small sphere on a 
larger; and at the back part of the eye the optic nerve 
passes through the sclerotica. This latter coat is 
lined with the choroides, a thin membrane, the inner 
surface of which has a layer of dark coloring matter. 
Within this is an expansion of the optic nerve called 
the retina. Within these coats are enclosed the refract- 
ing substances called the humors of the eye. In the 
front, filling up the protuberance of the cornea, is the 
aqueous humor, in which is placed the iris, a beautiful 
ring of different colors surrounding the pupil, that black 
spot in the centre of the eye, which is the only aperture 
by which the light enters. Behind this is a trans- 
parent substance of greater density, forming a double 
convex lens, and termed the crystaline humor. The 


LECT. Iv.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 175 


remaining part of the interior, constituting more than 
three-fourths of the whole, is filled with the vitreous 
humor. On the retina, where all the rays after their 
refraction are brought to a focal point, a perfect image 
of the object to which the axis of the eye is directed is 
formed, and, by some mysterious process, the steps of 
which we can no farther trace, the information is con- 
veyed along the nerve to the brain, and from the sen- 
sation thus produced the mind acquires its perception 
of external objects. 

The great perfection of this small but invaluable 
piece of divine mechanism cannot fawl to impress the 
mind of every attentive observer; it is such that every 
approach to excellence in optical instruments is but an 
imitation of it. If the construction of the eye and the 
manner in which the image of the external object is 
brought to the retina had been understood, telescopes 
would have been formed many centuries before Gali- 
Jeo, and many of the later discoveries in astronomy 
might have been anticipated. That the eye was formed 
by a being intimately acquainted with the properties of 
light, and the laws of optics, who can deny or doubt, 
who knows its construction, whose reason is not dis- 
torted by the power of prejudice? In every optical in- 
strument, the substance and shape of the refracting 
medium, and the distance of the screen which is to re- 
ceive the image, must be adjusted with the nicest ac- 
curacy, or the apparatus is useless; —this is complete 
in the human eye. The inside of the telescope is paint- 
ed black; the interior of the camera obscura must be 
darkened to prevent the interference of any other rays, 


© 


176 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. Iv. 


which would render the image indistinct ; the chamber 
of the eye is darkened, and the image on the retina is 
distinct and vivid. The different degrees of refrangi- 
bility which the various rays which form white light 
possess, when passing through a simple lens, give a 
confused coloring to the outline of the image which it 
should not possess, and render it indistinct. 'To ob- 
viate this imperfection was a problem, which’ for 
a long time exercised the ingenuity of the most 
acute and profound philosophy. In the construction 
of the eye the difficulty is anticipated, and the in- 
convenience prevented; by an accurate adjustment of 
the several refracting media, the chromatic aberration 
is corrected. Another difficulty which human ingenu- 
ity has had to encounter, arises from the law of refrac- 
tion by spherical. lenses; which bring the rays which 
pass through their centre to a focal point somewhat dif- 
ferent from that to which the remoter rays converge. 
This inconvenience, which is termed the aberration of 
sphericity, is perfectly, and in the most scientific manner, 
remedied, by the peculiar curvatures of the crystaline 
lens, and the concentric layers, of different density, of 
which it is formed.* Now, is it not an absurdity 


* Thave not here taken notice of the power of the eye to adapt 
itself to the various distances of objects. Many ingenious ex- 
periments have been made and several different hypotheses have 
been framed to explain this power; whilesome have doubted the 
existence of any apparatus for this purpose, and have been dis- 
posed to refer it merely to attention. See an account of these ex- 
periments and opinions in ‘ Bostock’s Physiology,’ Vol. III. pp. 
102—108; and ‘ Bell’s Anatomy,’ Vol. IIL. pp. 95—105. Magen- 


LECT. IV.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 177 


which contradicts all reason and experience, and shocks 
the understanding by its enormity, to suppose or assert 
that all these .exquisite adjustments are mere casual 
things, without any design; that it so happened by 
mere accident that such an organ, with such adapta- 
tions was formed ? 

But, again, take notice, how small is the instrument, 
how vast is the field of view, and how great the multi- 
plicity of objects, which at a single glance it is able to 
take in. Ona circumference of the retina, not exceed- 
ing perhaps half an inch in diameter, is painted dis- 
tinctly the whole landscape in view, including several 
miles of space, with all its diversity of hill and dale, 
and groves and gardens, and corn-fields and pastures, 
with flocks and herds, and lowly cots and stately man- 
sions. How inconceivably small must bethe space which 
each single object occupies; how minute the points 
over which those objects in the miniature landscape 
travel, to correspond with all the changes in position 
which are taking place in the scene without; and what 
_ exquisite sensibility must that nervous expansion pos- 
sess, which is thus susceptible of impressions so nume- 
rous and diversified within so small a compass! But 
in proportion to the delicacy of any piece of mechanism 


die says, ‘‘ whatever be the distance of the object, the eye ought, 
according to theory, to change its form for the object to become 
distinct, or at least, the crystalline humor should be carried for- 
wards or backwards, according to the distances. Here experi- 
ment is in contradiction to theory, which renders nugatory all 
the explanations hitherto proposed,”—Elementary Summary of 
Physiology, Vol. is p. 43. 


178 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


is the necessity of precaution to preserve it in safety. 
We have already noticed the bony cavity in which this 
precious ball is deposited, the strong but flexile coat in 
which it is enveloped, and the soft cushion on which it 
is imbedded; but this is not all. The quantity of light 
which we receive is ever varying, from the effulgence 
of the summer noon, to the darkness of the starless 
night: the extreme sensibility of the organ renders 
some adjustment necessary to adapt it to the quantity of 
light; this was evidently foreseen by the power which 
formed the eye, and provided for in a way which has 
not its parallel in all the contrivances of man. Ob- 
serve that colored ring which surrounds the black spot 
in the centre of the eye, which we call the pupil, and 
which is the only aperture, by which the rays of light 
enter, the size of which is variable. This beautiful iris 
is a piece of finely wrought net-work, furnished with a 
number of muscular fibres, in two separate sets, one cir- 
cular, the other radial. By these it is enabled to in- 
crease or diminish the breadth of the ring, and conse- 
quently to vary the size of the aperture. This also has 
a self-adjusting movement independent of the will. 
When the light is too much for the delicate nerve at 
the back of the eye, by the action of the circular mus- 
cles, the iris enlarges the breadth of its ring, and so 
diminishes the pupil that fewer rays enter: when, on 
the contrary, the quantity of light is diminished, and it 
becomes necessary to receive as many rays as possible 
from a given point, the iris, true to its office, contracts 
the radial fibres, enlarges the aperture, and exposes a 
greater surface to the admission of the rays. Hence 


LECT. IV.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 179 


the uneasy sensation we feel on going suddenly into a 
very strong light, till the iris has adjusted itself; and 
also the difficulty we have in perceiving objects when 
we leave a strongly illuminated place, till this admira- 
ble piece of self-regulating mechanism has enlarged the 
pupil of the eye. Did chance with its random throws, 
or did equally blind and unthinking necessity ever pro- 
duce workmanship like this, with such obvious rela- 
tions to other parts of a whole, and with functions so 
evidently referring to a precise object ? 

Mark also, with the same evident intention of pre- 
serving from harm, how the eyebrows throw out their 
bushy protuberances, to prevent any drop of moisture 
or particle of dust from gliding down the forehead into 
the eye. See how the eyelids cover the front of this 
organ, and instantly close whenever danger is appre- 
hended, or shut it completely up when it needs rest, 
and by their lashes prevent any small objects from ap- 
proaching too near. And notice the glands, which are 
ever secreting their soft liquid and oozing it out, to 
keep the surface of the eye moist, and to furnish the 
lids with the means of keeping it ever clean by their 
frequent motion, 

Nor is the muscular apparatus, by which the eye is 
turned in every direction, less admirable. Each eye 
is furnished with six muscles, by which we can at 
pleasure turn its axis towards any object. These are 
attached to the external coat, and are alllodged within 
the orbit of the eye. One of these, the upper oblique 
muscle, exhibits a very curious contrivance. “Its ten- 
don passes throygh a cartilaginous pulley in the mar- 


1380 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


gin of the orbit, and then turns back again to be inserted 
into the eye-ball; so that the effect produced by the ac- 
tion of the muscle is a motion in a direction exactly the 
reverse of that in which its fibres contract.” Well may 
the author add, “This mechanism, simple as it is, 
affords one of the most palpable instances that can be 
adduced of express contrivance; for in no other situa- 
tion could the muscle have been so conveniently lodged 
as within the eye-ball; and in no other way could its 
tendon have been made to pull in a direction contrary 
to that of the muscle, than by the interposition of a pul- 
ley turning the tendon completely round.”* How 
surprising is that mechanism which, by its delicate 
and easy movements, directs the eye in following the 
course of any body in motion, glances with nearly the 
rapidity of light over the largest field of view, and with- 
out a moment’s pause gives an almost imperceptible and 
constant motion to this organ, which the liability of the 
retina to exhaustion renders necessary. 

I"ew and brief as these notices are, and imperfect as 
is the sketch, who is not, with such contemplations, 
filled with devout admiration of the divine wisdom and 
benevolence, so strikingly manifest in the power of 
vision? Who does not see, in the adaptation of light 
to the eye, and of this organ to the properties of light, 
the most convincing proof of the existence of an in- 
telligent being, by whose power and skill man was 
formed? Who will venture to say deliberately, after 
an attentive survey of the wonders of the eye, that they 

* Dr. Roget’s Bridgewater Treatise —ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE 
Puysto.oay, Vol. II. pp. 465—466, 


LECT. Iv.| FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 181 


are all mere accidents of matter—that the lens and the 
other humors were not made to refract the rays—that it 
was a mere chance that there was a nervous screen to 
receive the rays just where they were brought to the 
point of convergence, or that there was any nerve at all 
—that though there may be intention in the construc- 
tion of the silken purse, which a lady knits, yet there 
can be none in the formation of the beautiful and ne- 
cessary iris—that though there may be design in the 
use of the rope whicha seaman reeves through a block, 
to give the requisite direction to a yard or sail, yet there 
can be none in the passing of one of the tendons of the 
oblique muscles through a pulley, to secure the neces- 
sary direction for the movement it was to effect—that 
though things of inferior skill require mind, mechanism 
of exquisite skill requires none,—and that therefore, by 
this inverted rule of reasoning, all the adjustments and 
adaptations of the eye, its nerves, and muscles, and 
coats, and lenses, and glands, and all its preserving 
apparatus, required no mind at all? “He,” says a 
writer in one of our leading periodicals, “who ex- 
plores the structure of the human eye—its expressive 
forms—its exquisite movements—its union of tender- 
ness and strength—its magic chamber, furnished with 
lenses and curtains—and its delicate canvass, which re- 
ceives the vivid pictures of external objects, and presents 
them to the brain, while it takes back the creations of 
the mind, and gives them an external form and locality ; 
—he who studies this master-piece of divine mechanism, 
and who does not join in the fervid ejaculation, ‘He 
who made the eye, does He not see!’ deserves to be 


182 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


degraded from the rank of intelligence, and placed 
in that small appendix to human nature which the 
moralist only. recognizes—the blind leaders of the 
blind.” * 

In the instances which we have already selected, we 
have seen an organization of curious workmanship in 
man, constructed with evident reference to the proper- 
ties of nature without him; we have shown that the fur- 
niture and appendages of this globe have an obvious 
adaptation to his wants and capabilities: before we quit 
this part of our subject, there is a class of adaptations 
somewhat different from those which have been addu- 
ced, and which do not perhaps come so exactly under 
this division of our subject, yet which, as they manifest 
very strikingly beneficent design, and exhibit arrange- 
ments which could result only from a knowledge of 
what was necessary to man’s existence and happiness, 
and show an intention to provide for his welfare, we 
request permission briefly to notice. Look at man, then, 
in connection with beings of his own species. His first 
introduction to this world is marked by entire depen- 
dence on the care of others. There is no living thing 
which requires the hundredth part of the solicitude, 
the constant attention, and the patience which never 
tires, in order to preserve and rear it; and how com- 
pletely are all these secured by that instinctive affec- 
tion which springs up spontaneously in the bosom of 
the parents, which waits for no acquaintance to pro- 
duce it, which needs no argument to enforce it, no 
example to direct it, but which, with a gush of feeling 

* Edinburgh Review, January, 1834, p. 437. 


——. — 


a 


LECT. IV.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 183 


which only the parent knows, hears the first cry of 
life, sees the helpless and unconscious babe incapable 
of the most distant recognition, and presses it to a 
heart which would shed its choicest blood to secure 
this precious embryo of humanity from harm. What 
can equal the delicacy and strength of the mother’s 
fondness, which in one moment starts into full maturity 
and power, and which continues unabated by all the 
toils, and watching, and privations which she endures 
for the babe which hangs upon her breast? In the 
bosom of the lowliest and rudest peasant a new foun- 
tain of sensibility is opened when he feels that he is 
a father: the mother of his child becomes incomparably 
more interesting than when he first beheld her in all 
her virgin charms: his home is still dearer ; and while 
his toils are sweetened by the thoughts of tenderness 
which work within him, he looks forward with de- 
lighted anticipation to the period, when in his cot he 
shall behold the mother and her lovely babe, or receive 
into his own sinewy arms the precious treasure. Can 
this instinctive affection,on which the preservation of 
man depends, at that helpless period, when he can nei- 
ther solicit aid nor even be conscious of it when render- 
ed, be the result of chance? Is not the supposition a 
wild extravagance, rather than sober reason? Or, does 
the heartless attempt at explanation which atheism offers 
account for it? What mother, whose heart has throbbed 
with maternal tenderness,—what man, through whose 
soul the first announcement that he is a father has 
thrilled with unspeakable emotion, can hear, without 
surprise bordering on indignation, all this depth of 


184 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


sacred feeling attributed to the physical attraction of 
matter, or the chemical affinities of the elementary 
substances which enter into the composition of our 
bodies ?* | 

But again ; lookat the helpless condition of the young 
stranger, and the admirable provision which is made 
for his subsistence. The new-born infant has not on- 
ly no sense or power to provide for his sustenance, 
but he has no teeth to masticate his food, and while 
much nutrition is necessary to his growth, his digestive 
powers are very weak. Just at this time a glandular 
apparatus which had always existed from the infancy of 
the mother, though never before needed, performs in a 
most active manner its functions, and secretes a liquid 
precisely of the kind which the infant needs, moderate- 
ly warm, mild, and grateful to the palate, at once easy 
of digestion and highly nutritive. No sooner is the 
child applied to the bosom where his sustenance is al- 
ready provided, than his lips, and tongue, with the vari- 
ous muscles concerned in deglutition begin, as though 
instructed by experience, to perform most skilfully their 
functions. How inveterate must be the atheism which 
can deny design in this? Was the breast of the mother 
formed by the mere concurrence of certain particles of 
matter, without any reference to the infant whose exist- 
ence was to depend on it? Was it by accident that such 
a fluid, so bland and nutritious, should be formed just 
at the time when the infant needed it?’ Was there no 
intention in placing the breasts just where the arms of 


* System of Nature——Vol, L pp. 33, 82, 83. 


I 


LECT. Iv.| FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 185 


the mother could fold her helpless babe to her bosom, 
while her eyes could gaze with fondness, and the very 
look of affection assist in exciting the excretion of this 
balmy liquid? Was it chance that gave to the child the 
power and the instinct of sucking as soon as he entered 
the world? or had this instinct no design, no reference 
to the mother’s breast?) What but infatuation the most 
unaccountable, or prejudice the most desperate, can de- 
ny the evidence of benevolent design, and consequently 
of a benevolent designer, in the provision thus made for 
a new-born babe? 7 A 

Every view we take of man confirms the assurance 
that he is, not accidentally, but essentially, a social be- 
ing: of this his wants, his desires, his pleasures, his 
sympathies, all give indications. It is scarcely neces- 
sary to add, that in the scale of being he rises high 
above all other classes of living creatures, which have 
their existence in this world. He is capable not only 
of mere animal feeling, but of sentiments the most ten- 
der, and delicate, and elevated; his memory recalls the 
past; his imagination gives present existence to things 
however remote in time or space; the range of his 
thoughts is boundless. In the means which he pos- 
sesses of carrying on intercourse and exchanging 
ideas with his fellow-men, we see a striking adapta- 
tion to this superiority of nature. The power which 
animals possess of expressing their wants and desires, 
appears to correspond with their capability of thought 
and feeling. Their cries and gestures are sufficient 
for all the purposes of their intercourse. But man, 
dignified with reason, possesses a medium of inter- 


186 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, |LECT. IV. 


course worthy of the high rank which he holds in cre- 
ation. He, and he alone, has the power of speech. 
This is certainly one of the most surprising character- 
istics of man. By producing certain vibrations in the 
air, he finds the means of giving outward expression to 
all the innumerable thoughts which pass through his 
own mind respecting himself or other persons, or any 
objects present or absent, real or imaginary, and of re- 
ceiving in return like communications from others. All 
the affections and antipathies, the hopes and fears, the 
purposes and expectations, the facts and reasonings and 
opinions, the entreaties the admonitions and the warn- 
ings, which it is thought necessary or desirable to ex- 
press, are thus conveyed from mind to mind, through- 
out the whole social community; and results most nu- 
merous, and varied, and far more important than all 
which proceed from laws of matter operating on the 
visible world, are constantly produced by the action of 
mind on mind. How simple and yet how astonishing- 
ly efficient is the process by which all this is carried 
on: it is merely by a few elementary sounds, called 
vowels and consonants, combined to form syllables, and 
words, and sentences. These, however, are sufficient 
as a vehicle for the thoughts of all men, of all lan- 
guages: the powers of these combinations appear, in- 
deed, to be inexhaustible. But simple as this process 
seems, when we consider the total dissimilarity of a 
sound and a thought, of an emotion of the heart and the 
vibration of the air, and at the same time the nice dis- 
tinctions, the deep abstractions, the curious relations 
which every language exhibits, we do not wonder that 


LECT. IV.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 187 


many should suppose the attainment to have been orig- 
inally beyond the reach of man, and that speech and 
language, so eminently beneficial to man, and yet so 
wondrously artificial, arose from a divine inspiration. 
But, considered as an acquirement dependent on reason, 
how inexpressibly valuable it is!'—What would be the 
condition of man or the state of society without it? Let 
us glance at the organization which serves so impor- 
ant a purpose, and which accords so completely with 
the superior faculties and varied wants of man as a so- 
cial being. eer , 

The voice, which is the medium of language, de- 
pends on the possession of lungs; all animals which 
have these are capable of some kind of voice, but ‘man 
only can articulate sound, and enjoys the gift of speech,”’* 


* Richerand’s Physiology, p. 424. “ The particular disposition,” 
adds this author, ‘‘ of the mouth, of the tongue, and lips, makes 
all pronunciation impossible to quadrupeds. The monkey, in 
whom these parts have the same conformation as in man, would 
speak like him,” (that is, supposing him also to possess reason 
like man) “if the air, as it leaves the larynx, were not diffused 
into the hyo-thyroid cavities, which are membranous in some, 
cartilaginous and even bony in the howling monkey, whose cry 
is So hoarseand melancholy. Every time that the animal wou'd 
utter his cry, these sacs swell, then empty themselves, so that he 
is not able at will to supply to the different parts of his mouth the © 
sounds they might articulate.” : 

“A bird,” says another eminent physiologist, ‘‘ pronounces 
words, even phrases, but does not speak. Man alone is gifted 
with speech, which is the most powerful means of expression pos- 
sessed by the mind; he alone attaches a meaning to the words 
which he pronounces, and to the arrangement which he gives 
them; without his intellect he would not speak.”—Magendie’s 
Physiology, Vol. I. p. 155, 


188 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. Iv. 


The principal organ of voice is the larynx, a cartilagi- 
nous cavity which forms the upper extremity of the tra- 
chea, at the top of which is the small slit of the glottis, 
through which the air passes. This organ is furnish- 
ed with a set of muscles at the command of the will, by 
which at pleasure, as the air is forced through it from 
the lungs, a sound can be produced, varying through 
the whole gamut of the voice, and capable of immense 
variety of expression. By some physiologists the larynx 
has been considered as a wind instrument, producing 
its sound by the vibrations of the lips of the glottis, as 
the reed of the clarionet; by others, the ligaments of 
the glottis have been viewed as the chords of a stringed 
instrument. ‘T’he author just quoted observes, “ It ap- 
pears that we are to consider the larynx as combining 
the advantages and exhibiting the double mechanism of 
wind and stringed instruments: it is on this account 
that it surpasses all musical instruments, by the extent, 
the perfection, and, above all, by the inexhaustible vari- 
ety of its effects.”* By the mouth, the lips, the tongue, 
and the teeth, these effects are multiplied beyond any 
power of calculation. Who then can view this curious 
structure, which gives to man the power of speech, a 
power so completely adapting him for that state of social 


* Richerand’s Physiology, p. 423. In pp. 111, 112, of “Animan 
Puysio.oay,” one of the most valuable of the publications of the 
Society for diffusing Useful Knowledge, there is a curious calcu- 
lation from Dr. Barclay, of the almost innumerable varieties of 
tone of which the human voice is capable, by which it appears 
that millions of millions of distinct sounds may be produced, each 
one differing from the other, 


i 


~~ 


LECT. Iv.| FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 189 


life for which all his feelings and sympathies indicate 
that he was formed, and which so corresponds with his 
high superiority of reason, without a reverential admi- 
ration of the divine wisdom and goodness which are 
apparent, and without perfect astonishment that any 
persons should see nothing here but chance, or, what 
amounts to the same thing, “necessary laws” of matter, 
working without consciousness or design ? 

The last adaptation we shall notice under this branch 
of discourse, has not only reference to man in his social 
condition, but, in the most general manner, affects his 
well-being and improvement; and that is of the instru- 
ment by which he acts on external nature to the mind 
which employs it. Through all the gradations of ani- 
mal life, the means of protection and preservation are 
possessed in different degrees, Among the instruments 
which serve their purposes, we see great variety ; beaks, 
talons, jaws, and mouths of peculiar construction, claws, 
tusks, horns, and that singular organ, the trunk ofthe ele- 
phant. But how is man to provide for himself,to protect 
himself, and to make nature subservient to his comfort 2 
In point of physical capabilities, acuteness of some partie- 
ular sense, and the instincts which guide without rea- 
soning, he is inferior to many of the brute creation; he 
has not the strength of the lion, the fleetness of the stag, 
the eye of the eagle, or the scent ofthe dog; but he has 
Reason and a Hanp; and the possession of these give 
him a pre-eminence immeasurably above all the other 
tenants of this globe. The perfection of this instrument 
accords wisely with the superiority of the agent which 
has to employ it. “We have no reason to believe that 


190 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


any animal possesses a capacity, to which a more com- 
plete instrument for acting on external nature would be 
of material service. The dog would not gain much by 
the exchange of a hand, with a thumb and fingers, for 
his foot; and where there is the nearest approach to 
the powers of the human hand, what tool has been 
made, or what new art untaught by instinct, has ever 
been attempted? A hand without the intellect to put it 
to the use of which it is capable, would still have left 
man among the inferior tribes of brutes, in just the 
state in which he was created. Reason without the 
hand, and with a hoof or claw, could not have devel- 
oped itself, in the manner in which it has, and for want 
of exercise would have appeared very different from 
what it now is; in this case no arts could have been 
matured, no philosophical experiment attempted, no 
knowledge transmitted by means of writing and 
books; man would have wandered naked and des- 
titute, enjoying but little advantage from society, 
deriving a precarious subsistence from the spontaneous 
productions of the globe—if, indeed, in so helpless a 
condition he could have subsisted at all,—and exposed 
defenceless to the attacks of any beast that might seek 
to prey on him. But with such an instrument, and 
such a power to wield it, what wonders have been 
achieved! Cultivation has fertilized the surface of the 
globe, flowers and fruits have sprung up almost at his 
command, the forest has become a garden, and the wil- 
derness teemed with cities and villages, the ocean has 
been navigated, the stars counted, society enriched with 
the treasures of art and science, and man has asserted 
his sovereignty over all that dwell on the globe. 


LECT. IV.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 191 


Let us, then, notice for a moment the mechanism of 
that instrument by which the mind- accomplishes such 
wonders. Inserted laterally at the upper part of the 
trunk, and just below the head, we see on each side an 
arm, at the extremity of which is placed the hand. 
First the humerus, the strong bone of the shoulder, 
works in a socket of the scapula, in such a way as to 
admit of motion in every direction, and of course giving 
to all that is appended to it the advantage of its freedom 
of motion. From this the fore-arm proceeds, connected 
firmly with the humerus, by means of ligaments, sup- 
ported by two bones, the radius and ulna, the lattter of 
which plays ina hinge joint, admitting of motion in 
one direction only, and both articulating with the wrist. 
The eight bones of the wrist, curiously joined, form 
also the foundation on which the five metacarpal bones 
of the hand rest;* from these spring out the four fin- 
gers and the thumb, each, except the latter, possessing 
three bones and as many joints. To all these joints 
suitable muscles with their tendons are appended, by 
the operation of which, the movements of the several 
parts of this curious machinery are innumerable. How 
well adapted is the hand to give a sudden stroke or a 
delicate touch, a tenacious grasp ora gentle pressure: 


+ “We commonly say that there are five metacarpal bones, in 
which reckoning, we count the thumb with the rest: bnt what is 
called the metacarpal of the thumb is properly the first phalanx, 
or the first proper bone of the thumb, so that the thumb, regularly 
described, has, like the other fingers, three joints.”—Anatomy 
and Physiology of the Human Body, by J. and C. Bell, Vol.I. p. 
181, ed. 4th. Y 


192 PpROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


it can take up by the points of its fingers the finest 
needle, or by the application of both hands embrace and 
hold fast a circumference of several feet, and all the in- 
termediate dimensions. How fine and rapid are the 
movements, how astonishing the accuracy with which 
the fingers fly over the strings ofa harp, or the keys of 
a piano; and how exquisite must be the working of the 
nerves, and muscles,.and tendons, and bones, and joints 
of the hand, this “instrument of mstruments!” By 
means of such an instrument, under such guidance, the 
power of an individual is multiplied almost indefinitely; 
the hammer, the axe, and the saw, made and employed 
by the human hand, produce effects which would defy 
‘the strength of the lion, and to which the gigantic might 
of the elephant would be but infantile weakness. In 
possession of the mechanical forces, and with the know- 
ledge of chemical combinations, one individual com- 
mands the power ofa host.. Thus, before man all living 
creatures bow, and pay to him their homage and their 
service... The fiercest animals are subdued, the wildest 
tamed, and whatever any of them possess, that can min- 
ister to the convenience or comfort of man, is seized and 
appropriated by him. Neither the flight of the eagle, 
nor the fleetness of the antelope, nor the vast bulk of 
the whale amid the polar ice, gives security from the 
power of man—of man, weak and feeble as he is, but 
armed with reason and a hand. 

Now does it look like chance, or design, that there 
should be this adjustment of the hand to the mind, that the 
perfection of the instrument should be in such accordance 
with the power of the agent which is to employ it? Are 


LECT. Iv.| FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 198 


we to be told that the power of genius, and the varied and 
astonishing capabilities of the human intellect, are no- 
thing but the combinations, and affinities, and movements 
of oxygen, azote, hydrogen, and carbon, accidentally hap- 
pening to meet in such a condition as to originate thought 
and all the phenomena ofmind? And that to match with 
this sensorial organization, separate combinations of 
similar elements happened as accidentally to form a hu- 
merus, to fit with its extremity the cavity of the scapula 
and to work in it, and also a fore-arm with its ulna, and 
radius, and hinge joint, and the curious bones of the 
wrist, and those of the hand, and fingers, and thumb? 
Did ever any romance of the wildest extravagance im- 
agine such a concurrence of fortunate accidents as must 
have happened in this case 1—That all the bones and 
joints should have fitted each other; that the shoulder 
should not have had the articulation of the bones of the 
wrist, nor that of the elbow; that the hand should be 
divided into fingers, and these into so many joints; that 
there should be a thumb, and of sucha strensth com- 
pared to the fingers, and that it should not have been on 
a line with the fingers, which would have rendered 
the whole hand useless, or nearly so, and that not one 
joint should fail of its ligaments, or its tendons, and 
muscles, not only to move it in one direction, but to 
bring it back again to its former position; that an arm 
with such an hand should be placed on each side, to be 
able to act with each other, and that just under the in- 
spection of the eye, and subject to its guidance,—-that 


these, and a thousand things besides, each one of which 
13 


194 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. Iv. 


was essential to the completion of such an instrument, 
should have happened, without any wisdom, or design, 
or intention, to meet, so as to form the hand what it is, 
supposes such a combination of fortunate occurrences as 
the most exuberant imagination never brought together, 
in the most marvellous fiction that ever made credulity 
stare ! 

We were to produce ‘instances in man’s relation to 
external nature, of evident design, in order to prove 
that a wisdom as well as a power to which we can as- 
sign no limits, was employed in these arrangements, on 
which the existence and well-being of the human race 
depend; we think such instances have been produced 
in such variety, and of a nature so convincing, as can- 
not, by all the sophistry of infidelity, be explained on 
any other principle than that of the existence of an all- 
wise and powerful Creator. We shall now, therefore, 
proceed to the last view which we proposed to take of 
man; this will extend the adaptations of a designing 
wisdom to THE RELATION OF THAT WORLD WHICH HE 
JNHABITS TO THE GREAT SYSTEM OF WHICH IT FORMS 
A PART. 

We have already occupied so large a portion of this 
lecture with the last brauch of discourse, that it is ne- 
cessary to comprise our remarks on the concluding 
part in as small a compass as possible. We have seen 
some of the striking adaptations indicative of design in 
the structure of man, in the relation of the parts of his 
corporeal frame to each other and to the whole—in the 
relation of man’s organization to the world and its fur- 
niture—and we now notice the relation of this world to 


LECT. Iv.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 195 


the whole, of which it forms a part; and though the 
glance which we take of the great system must be cur- 
sory and brief, it will, I trust, be sufficient to show that 
the traces of a being of infinite wisdom and intelligence 
are here also strikingly manifest. 

The globe which we inhabit forms part of a magnif- 
icent system, which takes its name from the central 
body, around which the whole revolve, thence called 
Solar System. In this splendid and stupendous piece 
of celestial machinery, we see a vastness which oyer- 
whelms us, and which reduces all the magnitudes and 
distances to which we are accustomed on the surface of 
this earth to a mere point. The sun, in the centre, 
being between one and two million times larger than 
this globe, and the outer circle of this immense orrery, 
a circumference of ten thousand millions of miles. 
Around this centre, and at different distances, revolve 
seven primary planets, besides four which slightly vary 
from them, several of which are attended by moons or 
secondary planets, the whole number of which is eigh- 
teen, all of which accompany the progress of their pri- 
maries. All these bodies are globular, all move round 
the sun from west to east in nearly circular orbits, and 
in nearly the same plane,* have a rotary motion on 
their own axis, and a certain inclination of their poles 
to their ecliptics.— All these mighty orbs at distances 

“ The satellites of Uranus, or the Georgium Sidus, are a re- 
markable exception, the planes of their orbits being nearly per- 


pendicular to the ecliptic—See Treatise on Astronomy, by Sir 
John F. W. Herschell, p. 299. 


+ Besides the primary and secondary planets, there are comets 
to the amount of several hundreds, which move round the sun; 


196 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


which the mind cannot take in, move with a regularity 
which no clock-work can equal, from year to year, and 
from age to age. 

The first adaptation which strikes us as indicating 
design, is the relative position of that body which is the 
source of light and heat to all. If we wish to place a 


lamp or stove in such a situation that the benefits result- 


ing from either should be equally diffused through a 
given space, we fix it in the centre. And ifa Being of 
infinite wisdom had the regulation and disposition of 
all the parts of this celestial system, would he not select 
the same position for the sun? And would it not be 
something very singular, that chance should do precisely 
that which the wisest foresight would choose and de- 
termine? All the purposes of the system, for aught 
that we can perceive, would have been answered just 
as well if the central body had been opaque, or if the 
luminous body had been one of those smaller orbs which 
move round the centre. Had this been the case, the 
whole condition of our globe would been completely 
different, and neither man nor beast, neither animal nor 
vegetable life could have existed. And is not the sup- 
position as gratuitous as it is bold and daring, that the 
lighting up of the whole magnificent orrery by kindling 
amidst all that is apparently irregular in their movements, “ the 
motions of comets are regulated by the same general laws 
as those of the planets,—the difference of the cases consisting only 
in the extravagant elongation of their ellipses, and in the absence 
of any limit to the inclination of their planes to that of the eclip- 
tic;—or any general coincidence in the direction of their motions 


from west to east, rather than from east to west, like what is ob- 
served among the planets.”—Herschell’s Astronomy, p. 306. 


a 


LECT. Iv.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 197 


this glorious orb just in its centre, had no reference at 
all to those myriads of beings who should receive per- 
petual benefit from it? 

There are two other arrangements sil are eminent- 
ly beneficial, and which have no appearance whatever of 
chance or accident. By the rotation of the earth on its 
axis, every part of the globe shares in the benefit of the 
sun’s rays; without this one half of it would be a dark 
and cheerless desert, where no life could exist, and the 
other would be parched by oppressive heat and be ina 
perpetual glare. The inclination of the earth’s axis is 
another means of good. If the axis of the earth were 
perpendicular to the ecliptic, the polar regions would 
be in constant winter; but by the inclination of the 
earth’s axis the frozen regions of the north have their 
summer, and the cheerless winter of the antarctic climes 
is enlivened by the return of the sun. To this benefi- 
cent adjustment we are indebted for all the delights and 
blessings of the change of seasons. 

In the combination of those forces by which the 
earth performs its annual revolution, we see another 
indication of supreme wisdom and goodness. By the 
attraction of gravity the earth is ever drawn towards 
the centre; by the projectile force impressed on it, it 
tends to move forward in a straight line; and by their 
joint operation it moves around the sun. These two 
forces, however, might be combined in very different 
proportions, so as to vary almost without end the ellip- 
tical shape of the orbit; but to admit of animal and veg- 
etable life, the orbit must be either circular or nearly 
so. The latter isthe case with regard to the earth and 


198 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


the other planets. If these forces had been differently 
combined, so as to produce an’ elliptical orbit of much 
greater eccentricity than that which the earth now has, 
the seasons would have been very different ; at one pe- 
riod cold beyond endurance would have destroyed vital- 
ity in any form that we can conceive of; and at another 
part of the year the earth would have been scorched 
with insupportable heat. Now what satisfactory ac- 
count can atheism give of the existence of the projectile 
force at all? This, at least, cannot be affirmed to be an 
essential property of matter. Nothing beyond the 
merest conjecture can be advanced on this point by infi- 
delity. Was the exact adjustment of these two forces, 
and the nearly circular orbit of the earth as its result— 
the only case in which the earth could be inhabited by 
the present race of beings—a matter determined with- 
out foresight and wisdom? Is it philosophy or infatua- 
tion to believe, that this most accurate adaptation of the 
shape of the earth’s orbit to the wants, and comforts, 
and well-being of the creatures that inhabit the world, 
is a matter of chance, or, which amounts to the same 
thing, a result of the unconscious, unintentional opera- 
tion of mere physical causes ? 

And lastly, look at the harmony of the whole system, 
and the provision made for its continuance. If no in- 
telligence presided over this magnificent planetarium, 
combining the forces by which the several bodies move, 
allotting to each his station, and giving direction to their 
various movements, how can we account for the exact 
regularity by which so many bodies move, each inde- 
pendent of the other, but all forming one connected 


LECT. IV.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 199 


whole? How came it to pass, if there was no design 
or plan to regulate these various bodies, that some of 
them did not move from east to west, or in orbits per- 
pendicular to each other, or why were these orbits all 
so nearly circular? Who that is not under the domin- 
ion of an incurable prejudice, can suppose or assert that 
it is without any design that they are placed at just such 
distances, acted upon by just such forces, and have just 
such orbits as should prevent their interfering with 
each other’s movements so as to endanger the safety of 
the whole or of any part of the system, but that still, 
age after age, the mighty machine should keep moving 
with all its precision, and that the planets and their 
satellites should keep on their way with undeviating 
accuracy and perfect harmony? There are, however, 
some slight apparent irregularities, which arise from 
the law of universal gravitation. Not only does the 
sun attract every planet, but every one of these planets 
has an attractive force on every other, which tends to 
disturb that simplicity and regularity of movement which 
would take place with reference to the sun and any one 
planet, if there were no others in existence. But it has 
been found, by a most profound mathematical calculation, 
that none of these disturbing forces affect the perma- 
nence of the system; but that, on the contrary, they are 
all so nicely balanced and adjusted as to correct each 
other, and to tend to its preservation; that these irreg- 
ularities partially considered are completely regular 
when the whole is taken into account, and have a cer- 
tain limit beyond which they cannot pass, certain boun- 


200 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. Iv. 


daries within which they oscillate.* Now, think for a 
Moment on the knowledge, the wisdom, the care requi- 


*“ Many interesting questions here present themselves to our 
notice. Have the planetary ellipses always been, and will they 
always be, nearly circular 2 Among the number of the planets, 
have any them ever been comets, whose orbits have gradually 
approached to the circular form by the mutual attractions of the 
other planets? Will the obliquity of the ecliptic continually di- 
minish, till at length it coincides with the equator, and the days 
and nights become equal on the earth throughout the year? 
Analysis answers these questions in a most satisfactory manner. 
T have succeeded in demonstrating that whatever be the masses 
of the planets, inasmuch as they all move in the same direction, 
in orbits of small eccentricity and little inclined to each other, 
their secular inequalities will be periodic, and contained within 
narrow limits, so that the planetary system will only oscillate 
about a mean state, from which it will deviate but by avery small 
quantity; the planetary ellipses, therefore, always have been, and 
always will be nearly circular, from whence it follows that no 
planet has ever been a comet, at least, if we only calculate up- 
on the mutual actions of the planetary system. The ecliptic will 
never coincide with the equator, and the whole extent of its va- 
riations will not exceed three degrees.”—Laplace’s System of the 
World, translated by J. Pond, F. R. S. Vol. IL. pp. 44, 45. Also 
Sir J. F. W. Herschell’s Astronomy, ¢c. XI.,““On Perrursations.” 
See also the chapter in Mr. Whewell’s Bridgewater Treatise, 
written with much clearness and effect, “On THE SrTaBiLity OF THE 
Sysrem.” ‘When speaking of the probable existence of a Resist- 
ing Medium, this author observes, “ But it may be objected, the 
effect: of the medium must be, ultimately, to affect the duration 
of the earth’s revolution round the sun, and thus to derange those 
adaptations which depend on the length of the year. And, with- 
out question, if we permit ourselves to look forward to that in- 
conceivably distant period at which the effect of the medium will 
become sensible, this must be allowed to be true, as has already 


LECT. Iv.] FROM THE WORKS OF NATURE. 201 


site to adjust the density, the size, the position, the ve- 
locity of these several bodies, so that while each acts 
on the other, every disturbance should only produce 
order, and every irregularity so balance another as to 
preserve the most complete and beautiful harmony, 
without which harmony no living beings could inhabit 
the earth, at least such as arenow found on it; and can 
all this be the result of chance? “Surely,” says an 
excellent author, “the obvious impression that rises from 
this view of the subject is, that the solar system, with its 
adjustments, is the work of an Intelligence, who per- 
ceives, as self-evident, those truths to which we attain 
painfully and slowly, and after all imperfectly; who 
-has employed in every part of the creation refined con- 
trivances, which we can only with effort understand ; 
and who, in innumerable instances, exhibits to us what 
we should look upon as remarkable difficulties remark- 
ably overcome, if it were not that, through the perfec- 
tion of the provision, the trace of the difficulty is almost 
obliterated.* 

Here, then, we close our argument from the works of 


been stated. Millions, and probably millions of millions of years, 
express inadequately the distance of time at which this cause 
would produce a serious effect. That the machine of the universe 
is so constructed that it may answer its purposes for such a peri- 
od, is surely sufficient proof of the skill of its workmanship, and 
of the reality of its purpose; and those persons, probably, who 
are best convinced that it is the work of a wise and a good Crea- 
tor, will be least disposed to consider the system as imperfect, be- 
cause in its present condition it is not fitted for eternity.”—pp. 
205, 206. 


* Whewell on Astronomy and' General Physics.—p. 169. 


202 PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, [LECT. IV. 


nature; not because we have exhausted the subject, but 
because what we have advanced is, we conceive, amply 
sufficient to prove our point. So abundant is evidence, 
in every department of nature, that our task has been 
that of selection. Of the three great divisions, under 
which the various productions of the globe are arranged, 
we have taken only the animal kingdom; of the nu- 
merous tribes of animals, every race and every individ- 
ual of which affords striking instances of designing 
wisdom, displayed in almost endless diversity, we have 
fixed on man; and in considering him we have chosen 
only some few instances to our purpose, exhibiting, 
however, very obvious proofs that an intelligent power 
was employed in his formation. Each single instance, 
in itself considered, contains such marks of contrivance 
and proofs of design, as no atheistic hypothesis can ex- 
plain, such as an eye, a hand, or even a single joint; 
but in the combination of so many of these parts, to ac- 
complish one end, all working separately but all unit- 
ing to effect one object, we see an accumulation of evi- 
dence which very few subjects will admit. Recollect 
for a moment the extent of proof which we have advan- 
ced. We have shown, in the various systems of bones, 
muscles, and nerves, in the digestive and circulating 
apparatus, such, instances of exquisite skill and undeni- 
able adaptation as cannot be equalled by all the inge- 
nuity of human contrivance; we have farther shown, 
that between the wants and capabilities of man and ex- 
ternal nature, there exist adaptations and adjustments so 
many, so various, and so exquisitely curious and accu- 
rate, as could not possibly be accidental; and also that 


LECT. IV.] FROM THE. WORKS OF NATURE. 203 


these relations extend to the planetary system, which, in 
the beautiful regularity of all its stupendous machinery, 
_ and, among other great purposes which may have been 
originally designed,’ in the important benefits of which 
it is productive to the inhabitants of this globe, is a 
most impressive exhibition of the wisdom and the pow- 
er of a beneficent Creator. And, with these instances 
in your recollection, I ask with confidence, whether 
any cause can be assigned for all these effects adequate 
to their production, except the agency of an intelligent 
Being of infinite wisdom and power? How extrava- 
gant must be the credulity which can believe that the 
mere concourse of atoms, moving according to the laws 
of matter and motion, should establish all the harmo- 
nies of the planetary system, fit up a world so beau- 
tiful and so commodious for its future inhabitants as this, 
and then assemble, without any design or concert, in 
such positions as to form all the machinery of the hu- 
man frame, and to make all the necessary provisions for 
the preservation and continuance of the human race? 
To suppose that there should be such a concurrence of 
particles of matter, forming the necessary portions of 
stone, timber, iron, glass, and all the other material, as 
should construct a vast manufactory, with all its nu- 
merous pieces of machinery set in action by a power 
generated by another distinct and complicated apparatus, 
that the whole should be warmed by steam and lighted 
by gas,—to suppose that all this should be accomplish- 
ed by the “necessary laws” of matter, without an ar- 
chitect to plan, an engineer to design, or a workman to 
labor, is calm and sober reason, when compared with 


204 * REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. Iv, 


the boundless absurdities involved in the supposition 
that such a system, such a world, so fitted up—with 
such inhabitants—each individual containing within 
himself a far greater number of adjustments, of surpass- 
ing accuracy and unrivalled machinery, than the most 
ingenious production of human art, should spring into 
being without an intelligent Maker. Does not every 
dictate of reason reject the idea, does not every senti- 
ment of the heart, on a review of the wonders of nature, 
respond rather to the language of our text, “O Lord, 
how manifold are thy works ; in wisdom hast thou made 
them all?” 

Notwithstanding the length to which this lecture 
has already extended, I must yet claim your attention 
to the manner in which the advocates of the atheistic 
hypothesis have endeavored to meet this argument, or 
to evade its force. The author of the “System of Na- 
ture” assures us that atheists have no need to recur to 
any such cause as we have assigned, “in order to ex- 
plain the phenomena of the universe, to develop the 
operations of nature.” * Atheists are “natural philos- 
ophers, who are convinced that, without recurring to 
chimerical causes, they can explain every thing, simply 
by the laws of motion, by the relation subsisting be- 
tween beings; by their affinities; by their analogies,” 
&e.t Let us hear, then, how the origin of man is ex- 
plained on these principles. “If again it be asked, 
what origin we give to beings of the human species 2 
Wereply that, like all other beings, man isa production 
of nature.” t “If then, it be demanded, whence came 

* Vol. I. p.503. + Vol. I. p.519. = t Vol. I. p. 139. 


LECT. IV.] REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. 205 


man? We answer, our experience on this head does 
not capacitate us to resolvé the question; but that it 
cannot interest us, as it suffices for us to know that 
man exists.” * But he affirms that there is ‘no contra- 
diction in supposing that the human race, such as it is 
at the present day, was either produced in the course 
of time or from all eternity.” (!) + Still he is inclined 
to think that man was formed “in the course of time.” t 
‘However it may be,” he continues, “if we are obliged 
to recur, by imagination, to the origin of things, to the 
infancy of the human species,.we may say that it is 
probable man was a necessary consequence of the dis- 
entangling of our globe, or one of the results of the 
qualities, of the properties, of the energies of which it is 
susceptible in its present position;—that he was born 
male and female ;—that his existence is co-ordinate with 
that of the globe in its present position.” ¢. “ The primi- 
tive man did, perhaps, at first, differ more from the 
actual man than the quadruped differs from the insect.” § 
Now observe, I entreat you, how anxious this writer 
appears to get rid altogether of the inquiry into the 
origin of man; nor is this surprising; it is, we feel as- 
sured,an inquiry which must, ifrationally pursued, prove 
fatal to the atheistic scheme. We are dissuaded from 
the unprofitable and -uninteresting pursuit of such a 
question; “it cannot interest us” to know “whence 
came man.” Cannot interest us! Why this is a point 
the decision of which will determine the great question 
at issue between usand atheism. Prove only that such 


* Vol. I. p. 139. +t Vol. I. p. 140. - tVol. I. p. M6. 
§ Vol. I. p. 147. 


206 REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. lV. 


a being as man could be produced, “ male and female,” 
by the accidental concourse of material atoms, by any 
physical properties of matter, and we must admit that 
the same causes might give existence to all the wonders 
of the universe. But if we have proved that there are 
numerous and decisive evidences of the most surpassing 
wisdom and benevolent intention exhibited in the for- 
mation of man, and his relation to external nature, then 
it undeniably follows that there isa supremely great 
and intelligent Creator. And shall we be told that it 
cannot interest man to know whether he is the offspring 
of chance, or the production of divine power 1—whether 
he owes his being, with all his faculties and capabilities 
of enjoyment, to the wisdom and beneficence of an Al- 
mighty Creator; or whether it be an idle fiction to sup- 
pose the existence of such a being? ‘Cannot interest 
us” to know whether the warmest emotions of grati- 
tude should be cherished to a Being who has laid us 
under infinite obligations to love and serve him, and who 
has unbounded power over us,—or whether we should 
endeavor to repress every feeling of this kind which rises 
in the bosom, and to efface from the mind every such 
idea as a debasing and injurious superstition! What 
must be the state of that man’s mind, what must be the 
moral condition of a man, who has brought himself to 
such a point of hardened indifference, of unnatural, ir- 
rational insensibility, as to treat the inquiry how man 
eame into being, and whether or not he has a Maker, 
as an uninteresting trifle! 

Observe, further, how ready this philosopher of atheism 
is to favor any supposition, however extravagant and 


LECT. Iv.] REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. 207 


absurd, provided it only exclude the agency of a Crea- 
tor. The race of man may be eternal, or of recent 
date; may have sprung into being as it now is,“ male 
and female;” “ born,” but without parents, his only pro- 
genitors being the entangled powers of the primitive 
globe, whose struggles to get loose were the travailing 
pangs that gave birth to the human family ;—or it may 
have advanced from no one knows what inferior condi- 
tion—that of a reptile, an oyster, or an animalcule, per- 
haps—to his present high station in the rank of being, 
Man may have been at his first formation any thing, 
may have come into existence any how; this atheistic 
advocate sees nothing absurd in any one conjecture or its 
very opposite; he will welcome asa friend and ally any 
hypothesis, however wild and fantastic, if it only ex- 
clude intelligence from the formation of man, and deny 
the being of a God. 

And what explanation of the innumerable instances of 
wisdom and design which are apparent in the structure 
of man is it, to say that it resulted from “ the present posi- 
tion” ofthe earth. If this were the case, why are not 
men and women now produced by the continuance of 
the earth in that position?* How is it that we never 


* Attempts have been made sometimes to neutralize the force 
of such remarks as the above, by asking, on the other hand, why, 
if there is a Creator, does he not now createnew beings? Buta 
moment’s consideration will show that such a question cannot 
restore the balance. An intelligent Creator is one who acts ac- 
cording to his own will and choice ;—the “physical causes” to 
which atheism refers every thing have nothing of this kind. An 
infinitely wise and powerful being may determine what lim- 
its he will place to the exercise of his own power on any occa- 


208. REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. IV. 


find springing up on our sunny banks, or green pas- 
tures, or by the river’s brink, some newly-formed man 
or woman, a child, or at least some rudiments of a hu- 
man being. Or, if in the climate of our northern isles 
the earth is not sufficiently prolific, why have not such 
wonderful productions been known in the tropical re- 
gions? Such discoveries, the writer well knew, had 
never been made; but he seems to console himself with 
the hope that some such are still in reserve. ‘“ What is 
it,’ he asks, “that authorizes them to believe this ster- 
ility in nature? Know they if, in the various combi- 
nations which she is every instant forming, nature be. 
not occupied in producing new beings, without the cog- 
nizance of these observers? Who has informed them 
this nature is not actually assembling, in her immense 
elaboratory, the elements suitable to bring to light gen- 
erations entirely new ?” * 

What are such fancies as these but “the baseless 
fabric of a vision?” and what must be the weakness of 
a system that can lean on such props? What answer 


sion, or in what way and at what period it shall be employed. 
“ Physical causes” must go on without any capability of exer- 
eising more or less power, or selecting any time, or of limiting 
for any reason their own acts. If man be the product of “the 
properties, the energies” of which the earth “is susceptible in 
its present position,” the inquiry is perfectly relevant, why do not 
the same “ properties,” &c. in the same “position” of the globe, 
produce men now? If an almighty and intelligent Being is his 
Maker, the question, why does he not continue to create is quite 
impertinent: it might as well be asked, why did he create man 
at all, or create him as he is? 


+System of Nature—Vol. I. p. 148. 


LECT. Iv.] REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. 209 


is it to all the evidence which we bring, - talk of “the 
disentangling of our globe,” or “the results of the prop- 
erties, of the energies, of which it is susceptible ; ” 
we ask, are there any properties or energies, short of 
infinite wisdom and boundless power, that can satisfac- 
torily account for all the wonders within us and with- 
out us ? i 
Another author, anxious to exclude the agency of 
the Deity from the formation of the world, admits the 
difficulty of accounting for the existence of man and 
the larger animals in “ the position which the globe at 
present holds in relation to the sun,” * and therefore 
concludes, with admirable logic, that the true solution 
of all the difficulties which press on the atheistic 
scheme may be obtained, by supposing the earth to 
have been ina different position with regard to the sun. 
But can any one be imposed on by such fallacies as 


* “But the question of the greatest difficulty is, that which re- 
lates to the origin of the first and most powerful kind of animals 
that exist upon the earth; the position which the globe at present 
holds in. relation to the sun, does not warrant us in the conclu- 
sion, that either man or the larger kind of animals in brute crea- 
tion could have resulted from -this position. The same power 
that formerly produced them would be able to produce them still, 
and in addition to the ordinary process of reproduction, we 
should have a right to expect new beauties and wonders, equal, 
at least, to the most excellent which we now behold. This, how- 
ever, is not the case, and the fair deduction on the ground of 
philosophy is, that the relative position of the earth and sun must 
formerly have been very different from what it is at present, and 
that it is upon a hypothesis of this kind that we are to seek for a 
solution of the highest difficulties with which we are presented 
in the animal world.”—Palmer’s Principles of Nature.—p. 54, 


210 REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. IV. 


these? Because the earth does not now produce men 
and animals, does it follow that it ever did, or ever 
could produce them, in any position whatever? what 
can be expected but bare assumption, when evidence 
cannot be obtained, and proof is impossible? Does the 
atheist know that the earth ever was in a position 
materially different from that which it now occupies? 
From what astronomical data or geological researches, 
can he ascertain that the variation in the size or shape 
of the earth’s orbit was ever such as this hypothesis te- 
quires? But whatever he may suppose the earth's 
position to have been, does wisdom of design or benev- 
olence of intention depend on the sun’s rays? We 
ask whether it can be imagined, by any man of reason 
and candor, that any degree of heat or cold is sufficient 
to account for all the marvellous contrivances and exqui- 
site machinery which the frame of man exhibits? But 
the very supposition carries with it its own refutation ; 
neither the vegetable productions which now cover the 
globe, nor the present races of animals which live on it, 
could have mantained their existence, even if brought 
into being, if the earth’s mean distance from the sun, or 
the shape of its orbit, had been materially different. If 
this hypothesis fails, the same author will venture an- 
other. “There is one other idea,” he remarks, ‘ of 
analogical weight in the discussion of this part of the 
subject. Nature is every where periodical in her exer- 
tions and energies; she is susceptible of fatigue and las- 
situde, and her most powerful operations are followed 
by proportionate debility and inactivity. It is, therefore, 
possible, in the order of nature, that the most powerful 


LECT. Iv.] REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. | 211 
Hes 


animals might have been the result of an inconceivable 
exertion, to which nature for millions of years after 
might have been totally incompetent.”* And these are 
the reveries which we are to take for reasoning! We 
point to innumerable instances of curious structure ex- 
hibiting the most consummate wisdom, and then we are 
told in reply, that in a paroxysm of unusual power, the 
excitement to which, had been accumulating for ages, 
unconscious matter became endowed with intelligence 
and full of wisdom, and putting forth intellectual pow- 
ers to which the genius of Newton was but puerility, 
gave birth to all these wondrous exhibitions of divine 
skill; but that, exhausted with the effort, all intelli- 
gence and wisdom again disappeared, and matter be- 
came as brute and unconscious as ever, and waits a 
few millions of years to become as wise and powerful 
again ! 

We are frequently referred, with an air of triumph, 
to the present curious processes of nature in the birth 
and growth of a human being. “Man,” says the 
writer we have frequently quoted, “in his origin, is an 
imperceptible point, a speck, of which the parts are 
without form,” &c.t While in intimate relation with 
the parent which gives them birth, we are.told, his or- 
ganization is gradually developed, and afterwards his 
growth proceeds, and life is maintained by the appro- 
priation of food. Thus “in all the phenomena man 
presents from the moment he quits the womb of his 
mother, to that wherein he becomes the inhabitant of 


* Palmer’s Principles of Nature —p. 54. 
t System of Nature——Vol. I. p. 125; also pp. 64, 65. 


212 _ REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. IV. 


the silent tomb, he perceives nothing but a succession 
of necessary causes and effects.”* But all this only 
tells us how the machine works, not how it is construct- 
ed. In allthe functions of life which preserve the in- 
dividual and continue the species, we see the working 
of this curious apparatus; but the question still returns, 
how came such an apparatus into being? To show 
us the gradual development of animal life, and how, by 
the assimilation of portions of external matter, it pro- 
ceeds to maturity, and how it subsequently decays, is 
no answer to the inquiry, whence is that life, and what 
is the origin of that most curious organization with 
which it is connected. The farthest point to which 
this attempted explanation carries us back, is to the 
commencing life of one individual; but this one pro- 
ceeds from another, and this again from another, and 
for this also, there was a parent; and we ask whence 
was the first, and how came this first human being, or 
first pair of human beings, among other incomparable 
wonders of their frame, to possess the property of giving 
birth to others? In all the cases to which the atheistic 
philosophy refers us, life already exists; and it is only 
from life that life is received :—an organized body ex- 
ists, and it is only from organization already in exist- 
ence that organization 1s produced ;—plants spring 
from plants, birds from birds, beasts from their like, and 
men from their own species. Can atheism show us a 
single instance of the power of unconscious matter, 
with all its “qualities and energies,” producing an or- 


* System of Nature—vVol. I. p. 127, 


LECT. Iv.] REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. 213 


ganized living being from a mass of inorganic matter ? 
To reply to our evidences of intelligence and design in 
the formation of man, by referring us to the manner in 
which the functions of vitality are discharged by a hu- 
man being already in existence, is an evasion so disin- 
genuous as to be a dishonor to philosophy and an in- 
sult to common sense. 

The same author, repeating the poetic dream of Lu- 
cretius with slight variation, has recourse to the fiction 
of seminal principles or germs of all things contained in 
the earth, and hatched into being by a genial state of 
the atmosphere. ‘“ The attentive observer,” this writer 
remarks, “sees nature full of erratic germs, some of 
which expand themselves, whilst others wait until mo- 
tion has placed them in their proper situation, in suita- 
ble wombs or matrices, in the necessary circumstances, 
to unfold, to increase,’ &c.* But what germs of ani- 
mal or vegetable life do we see that are not produced 
from animals and vegetables? Is there the shadow of 
a proof that any of these embryo seeds of living beings 
ever existed independent of some living being from 
which they proceeded ?- And whereare these matrices ? 
Have any ever been known or discovered separate from 
the parent stock, in which the young of animals or men 
have had their organization formed, or in which a sem- 
inal principle has been nurtured into full life? Where, 
we may confidently ask, do those erratic germs and 
matrices exist, but in the fancies of an atheistical phi- 
losophy ? But if we were to suppose that some such 


+ System of Nature.—Vol. I. pp. 63, 64. 


214 REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. lv. 


germs and matrices originally existed, what was to be- 
come of the young animal, especially of the infant, 
when thus introduced into life? Where are the breasts 
to suckle him, the arms to enfold him, the bosom to 
cherish him, and the maternal care to anticipate every 
want, and to ensure to him the necessary protection ? 
Why did not the advocate of atheism carry out the 
pretty fiction of the poetic philosopher, and make the 
earth open its bosom and stream out milk from its pores, 
while the ether enfolds him, and the flowers form his 
fragant couch, and the birds of heaven carol him to 
rest ? 

But in order to lessen the difficulty of man’s produc- 
tion by mere physical causes, with all that complicated 
and beautiful organization which he now possesses, we 
are sometimes told that he is not now what he was at 
his first formation; that the primitive man probably 
“ differed more from the actual man than the quadruped 
from the insect;”? that something very imperfect was 
produced by the earth, or by nature, which in the long 
process of ages gradually improved till it became a hu- 
man being.* Some modern naturalists have expended 
no small portion of labor and science to prove this im- 
perceptible gradation. Nature, it is assumed, first pro- 
duced animalcules, or some rude specimens of animal 
life, of the very lowest kind: in process of time these, 


* Though all who espouse this theory are not professed athe- 
ists; though some may admit that this “nature” to which they 
assign the formation of every thing, is an inexplicable something 
produced by the Deity; yet it is a supposition of which atheism 
gladly avails itself, 


LECT. Iv.] REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. 215 


by an original tendency to a higher state of being, and 
influenced by external circumstances, put forth the ru- 
diments of some new part or organ, which, in the course 
of many generations, became more perfect; these again, 
continuing in the progress of ages to advance, improv- 
ing their organization at every. step, formed at length 
the superior animals which we now see inhabiting the 
earth; while circumstances less favorable left others be- 
hind in this march of improvement. It is further as- 
sumed, that the endeavors which the force of circum- 
stances produced to exercise. any power, gradually 
formed an organization adapted to such a power or fac- 
ulty; thus, in some, many efforts to swim produced fins 
where they were needed; and in others, the desire and 
the frequent attempts to fly, originated wings; and that 
all the varied faculties and organs which any animals 
possess were produced in the same way; thus, at length, 
some very fortunate species, of a very high ancestry, 
passed into the condition of monkeys and apes—and 
thence, by successive gradations, acquired the form and 
the rationality of human beings. There is, however, 
in this theory, the same vitiating defect which pervades 
every attempt to account for all the wonders of the hu- 
man frame, without a creating Intelligence,—that wants 
facts to support it. Nor is this all; facts are decidedly 
against it. Ifthe infusoria, those imperceptible specks, 
myriads of which may be sporting in a drop of water, 
without being detected by the clearest sight in the 
brightest sunshine,—if these microscopic beings be se- 
lected as the first efforts of nature, so far from being so 
very deficient in organization as this system supposes, 


¥ ab ss ™, 7 


es 


216 REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. IV. 


recent discoveries have shown that they are possessed 
of a well-constructed apparatus for digesting and assim- 
ilating their food, and for performing all the functions 
of life; that each, indeed, possesses an organization so 
exquisitely minute, and yet so completely adapted to its 
condition, as to afford in itself a strong and unanswera- 
ble argument for the existence of an intelligent Crea- 
tor. Nor is the gradation in the scale of being so com- 
plete as this hypothesis would assume; there are so 
many large chasms and discrepancies as appear to make 
strongly against it. But waving these points, we ask 
_ for proofs, for well-authenticated facts, as evidence of 
any one species of animals passing from a lower to an 
essentially different and higher form of existence. Do 
the whole records of history contain one credible in- 
stance of this transmutation of species, of this advance 
upwards, so that completely new organs are acquired? 
Have all the extended researches of modern travellers 
and scientific naturalists furnished an instance of that 
intermediate state which must mark the transition of a 
dog to an ape, or that ofan apeto aman? Has the 
dog, domesticated as he is, in constant intercourse with 
man, amidst all the improvements of his natural in- 
stincts, and his, acquirement of new habits, in all the nu- 
merous varieties of size and shape, and color, in which 
he is found, and after all his successive generations, put 
forth one new organ, or made any nearer approach in his 
anatomical structure to the monkey tribe? Has an orang- 
outang ever been discovered in his intermediate stage 
towards a human being, either in the constitution of his 
body, in his power to utter articulate sounds, or in any of 


oy 
a. 


LECT, Iv.] REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. 218 


those exhibitions of intellect which form a broad and 
marked line of separation between man and the brute cre- 
ation ? * In the total absence of facts to support sucha fan- 
cy, there are facts which can be adduced of a kind entirely 
opposite. We have the means of ascertaining, with an 
accuracy far surpassing that of verbal description, what 
was the anatomical structure of many existing races of 
animals three thousand years ago. “‘It seems,’” say 
the professors of the museum of Paris, ‘as if the su- 
perstition of the ancient Egyptians had been inspired by 
nature, with a view of transmitting to afler ages a mon- 
ument of her history. That extraordinary and whim- 
sical people, by embalming with so much care the 
brutes which were the objects of their stupid adoration, 
have left us, in their sacred grottos, cabinets of zoology 
almost complete. The climate has conspired with the 
art of embalming to preserve the bodies from corrup- 
tion; and we can now assure ourselves by our own eyes 
what was the state of a great number of species three 
thousand years ago. We can scarcely restrain the 
transports of our imagination, on beholding thus preserv- 
ed, with their minutest bones, with the smallest por- 
tions of their skin, and in every particular most perfect- 
ly recognizable, many an animal, which at Thebes or 
Memphis, two or three thousand years ago, had its own 
priests and altars.’” t Did the inspection of these an- 


*“ We know nothing of the faculties of this animal,which can 
suggest the idea that it rivals the elephant in intelligence, much 
less any thing that can countenance the dreams of those who 
have fancied that it might be transmuted into the ‘dominant 
race.’”—Lyell’s Geology, Vol. II. p. 48. 


t Pp. 29, 30. 


e215 REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. IV. 


imals, every minute part of which was in so complete a 
State of preservation, justify the visionary theory to 
which we now refer? On the contrary, in no repre- 
sentative of a former race, whether wild or domestic, 
thus examined, was any specific difference seen, nor was 
there the slightest reason to suppose that three thousand 
years had in any degree altered any one species; but 
proof incontrovertible was afforded that no tendency to 
improvement, however combined with external circum- 
stances, has to this day brought up the ibis or the croc- 
odile, the cat or the dog, to any higher state of organi- 
zation approaching towards that of a human being; and 
that no remove at all has been made from the rank in 
which they have been, and in which we have every 
reason to believe they will continue as long as their re- 
spective races exist* An essential part of this scien- 


* Mr. Lyell has devoted several chapters to the investigation 
of this theory, as propounded by Lamarck and others, and thus 
concludes his examination: “For the reasons, therefore, detail- 
ed in this and the two preceding chapters, we draw the follow- 
ing inferences, in regard to the reality of species in nature. 

“First, That there is a capacity in all species to accommodate 
theimselves, to a certain extent, to a change of external circum- 
stances, this extent varying greatly according to the species. 

“2dly. When the change of situation which they can endure 
is great, it is usually attended by some modifications of the form, 
color, size, structure, or other particulars; but the mutations thus 
superinduced are governed by constant laws, and the capability 
of so varying forms part of the permanent specific character. 

“3dly. Some acquired peculiarities of form, structure, and in- 
stinct, are transmissible to the offspring; but these consist of such 
qualities and attributes only as are intimately related to the nat 
ural wants and propensities of the species. 


LECT. EV; ] REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. 219 


tific fiction is, that the functions of organs, and the uses 
of parts, did not originally spring from their structure, 
but that certain acts, and habits, and modes of living 
have in reality produced every peculiarity of organiza- 
tion. We see, indeed, in the structure of animals of 
various kinds many provisions for repairing and heal- 
ing, and even in some cases for reproducing a part; 
these seem to arise from the same wise and benevolent 
intentions which appear in innumerable instances, 
throughout the whole of the animal economy, as safe- 
guards against the many accidents to which life is ex- 
posed; in all these cases, however, we see no new or- 
gan or faculty which removes its subject from one spe- 
cies to another. But to suppose that the continued de- 


“Athly. The entire variation from the original type, which any 
given kind of change can produce, may usually be effected in a 
brief period of time, after which no further deviation can be ob- 
tained by continuing to alter the circumstances, though ever so 
gradually,—indefinite divergence, either in the way of improve- 
ment or deterioration, being prevented, and the least possible ex- 
cess beyond the defined limits being fatal to the existence of the 
individual. 

“* Sthly. The intermixture of distinct species is guarded against 
by the aversion of the individuals composing them to sexual un- 
ion, or by the sterility of the mule offspring. It does not appear 
that true hybrid races have ever been perpetuated for several 
generations, even by the assistance of man ; for the cases usually 
cited relate to the crossing of mules with individuals of pure spe- 
cies, and not to the intermixure of hybrid with hybrid. 

“6thly. From the above considerations, it appears that species 
have a real existence in nature, and that each was endowed, at 
the time of its creation, with the attributes and organization by 
which ut is now distinguished.” —Vol. II. pp. 67, 68. 


220 REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. IV. 


sire to stand upright, and the experiment, often tried, to 
walk erect, produced that perfection of ingenious ar- 
rangement which the bones of the foot display, that by 
the efforts of many generations fingers grew out of the 
hand, furnished with all their joints, and muscles, and 
tendons; and that, to render it complete, a thumb grew 
up, just in the very situation and acting in the only way 
in which it could give the hand its use and power,—to 
suppose that the curious machinery of the ear was form- 
ed by the long-continued attempts to catch and distin- 
guish the vibrations of the air;—and that all the exqui- 
site apparatus of the eye, with its coats and humors, 
and nerves, and muscles, and self-adjusting iris, was 
produced by frequent attempts at seeing,—is completely 
the romance of science; and such a romance as, cer- 
tainly, is not outdone by all the wild fictions of the 
Arabian Nights, or the ludicrous extravagancies of 
Lilliput or Brobdingnag. 

The Epicurean philosophy, however, takes a position 
the reverse of this, and assumes that the existence of ap- 
propriate parts, accidentally formed, led to their respec- 
tive uses.* So far from admitting the wisdom of a S5u- 


+ See Lucretius, de Rer. Nat. IV. 821, 823, which passage thus 
concludes— 
‘Nihil ideo quaniam natum est in corpore, ut uti 
Possemus; sed, quod natum est, id procreat usum.” 


Dr. Mason Good, in his translation of Lucretius, with 
notes, &c. endeavors to explain this and almost all the a- 
theistical peculiarities (or what others have considered such) 
of his favorite author, in such a way as shall not be incom- 
patible with Christianity. In this, however, the author pre- 


LECT. Iv.] REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. 221 


preme Being in the production of these wonders, this 
system teaches that the newly-formed earth, strong and 
vigorous in those days of its youth, produced men, as 
well as animals of every description, with as much ease 
as it now brings forth flowers and corn; that, in the ac- 
cidental concurrence of the primary atoms, all manner 
of shapes and forms, and monsters of every kind, came 
into being, but that all those productions which possess- 
ed not parts and organs suitable to the maintenance of 
life naturally perished; * and that therefore the exist- 
ence of all the beautiful and necessary mechanism to 
which we have frequently adverted, is no proof of a 
wise and benevolent design, but the mere result of such 
accidental formations as enabled the primitive species 
to maintain their existence and propagate their kind. f 
We have already pointed out the absurdity of suppos- 
ing that such parts and organs as exist in the animal 


sumes to think he has completely failed. The work allud- 
ed to, gives ample proof of the vast extent and variety of the 
excellent Dr.’s learning, and his great ingenuity in the applica- 
tion of it; but while he has successfully defended Lucretius and 
his great oracle Epicurus from many charges ignorantly or 
‘maliciously advanced, he has, the author of these lectures ven- 
tures to think, proceeded much further than truth and justice 
required. 


*De Rer. Nat. v. 835, &c. 


+ This is one mode of reply tothe argument from design which 
Mr. Hume puts into the mouth of his Philo—Dialogues concern- 
ing Natural Religion, ed. 2d, p. 153—* It is in vain, therefore, 
to insist on the uses of the parts in animals or vegetables and 
their curious adjustment to each other. I would fain know how 
an animal could subsist, unless its parts were so adjusted,” &c, 


222 - - REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. Iv. ¢ 


economy, and especially in man, were not designed for 
their appropriate use. Can it be seriously believed by 
any one who is not fondof paradox or enslaved by preju- 
dice, that the ear was not formed for hearing, nor the eye 
for seeing, nor the heart, with its arteries and veins, for 
circulating the blood, nor the chest and lungs and air- 
vessels for the office of respiration,—-or that such inimi- 
table exhibitions of skilful adaptations should be the re- 
sult of mere chance? It would be a sufficient reply to 
such an hypothesis to say that it is completely gratui- 
tous; that it has no data, nothing but conjecture on 
which to rest. But this is not all; it is conjecture 
which involves the greatest improbabilities. Among 
the monstrous shapes which, it is assumed, thus sprung 
accidentally into being, those only are supposed to have 
become extinct that possessed not the means of main- 
taining life or of perpetuating their species. But, on 
this supposition, thousands of monstrous shapes, belong- 
ing to every species, might have existed in a condition 
capable of propagating races of monsters, without their 
defective, or superfluous, or misshapen parts necessa- 
rily producing extinction of their kinds. In such case, 
might we not have expected that such monsters would 
have been seen, and have reached our own times ?—that 
races of men would have been known with one eye, or 
three eyes, or eyes in a less convenient position,—or 
men with an additional pair of arms, or only one, and 
that of a different form,—or even men with several 
heads, and an endless variety of superfluous members 
and grotesque shapes? Instead of this, we find but one 
unvarying type of a human pair, with such varieties only 
as different food and climates produce, or such occasion- 


LECT. Iv.] REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. 223 


al variations as arise from some accidental causes, and 
presently disappear. On such fantastic improbabilities 
argument is wasted. 

It is scarcely necessary to notice an attempt that has 
been sometimes made to invalidate such proofs of de- 
sign as we have adduced, by alleging that whatever ex- 
ists must exist in some form or mode; and that in what- 
ever other forms or combinations it might have existed, 
we might with equal reason have attributed it to design. 
Surely a fallacy so gross can mislead no one. Who 
can conceive for a moment that the necessity of matter’s 
existing in some form and place, can account for the 
complicated structure of a single plant or flower, to say 
nothing of the innumerable wonders of the human 
frame? Apply this mode of reasoning to St. Paul’s 
cathedral, which contains not the thousandth part of the 
instances of skill and intention which the corporeal 
structure displays ;—all the matter which composes the 
stones, and mortar, and brick work, and marble, and 
wood, must necessarily have existed in some form, and 
why not in this?) Wouldthe man be deemed sane that 
should seriously reason in this manner ? 

A sceptical writer of considerable celebrity has en- 
deavored to show that, notwithstanding all the multipli- 
ed instances of “order, arrangement, or the adjustment 
of final causes,” no conclusion can be drawn in favor 
of the existence of a designing mind. “ Matter may,” he 
observes, “ contain the source or spring of order origi- 
nally, within itself, as well as mind does.”* Is not 


* Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, by D. Hume, Esq. 
p. 55. The author, indeed, says, “for aught that we can know, 


224 oa REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. IV. 


this an attempt to confound things which the author 
admits are different, in order to support a sceptical phi- 
losophy 2? Mind and matter are admitted, throughout 
the whole of the argument, to be distinct. And what, 
we ask, is more essentially the characteristic of mind, 
as distinct from matter, than the power of arranging, se- 
lecting, intending, and adapting means to ends?’ And 
yet this author would insinuate that matter may possess 
these identical properties. He might as well have said, 
“ for aught we know a priori,” thought may have dimen- 
sions, and a volition be green or blue. But on what 
authority is such a supposition made? We know that 
mind originates order; what evidence have we that 
arrangements and adaptations originate in matter? Yet 
this writer seems so pleased with this idea, that he in- 
troduces his favorite character as saying, that he es- 
teems no system of cosmogony “more plausible than 
that which ascribes an eternal inherent principle of or- 
der to the world.” * Of this he speaks with the high- 
est confidence; “this at once solves all difficulties.” t 
But what is meant by this “ principle of order,” which, 
eternally inherent in matter, is to account for all the ex- 
quisitely curious workmanship of the human frame, to- 
gether with all the wonderful adaptations that we per- 


a priori, matter may,” &c. But is not this mere trifling? To 
what purpose is it in this argument to talk of what may or may 
not be known of matter @ priori, when it is constantly before us, 
and we have the means of ascertaining its properties by observa- 
tion and experiment ? 


+ Dialogues concerning Nat. Rel—pp. 124, 125, 
t P. 125, 


LECT. Iv,] REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. 225 


ceive throughout nature? If itmeans any thing that 
bears on our argument, it must mean that matter has an 
inherent power of arranging and combining its various 
particles so as to form adaptations of the most curious and 
complex nature, which answer the most benevolent ends, 
and that with a certainty and precision which would do 
honor to the highest wisdom. What. is this but to 
invest matter with the attributes of mind, and to pretend 
to account for all the marvellous adjustments which we 
have noticed, without admitting the existence of an in- 
telligent Creator, by saying that we have only to sup- 
pose matter to possess all the properties of mind, and 
then it could accomplish what we now see effected by 
mind only! “How could things have been as they 
are,’ he asks, ‘“ were there not-an original, inherent 
principle of order somewhere, in thought or in matter 1” 
Certainly there must exist a power capable of produ- 
cing all the wise arrangements and beautiful order 
which we every where behold ; -with this sentiment all 
must agree. But when he adds “it is very indifferent to 
which we give the preference,” reason recoils, and we 
shrink from the bold absurdity. “ Indifferent”? wheth- 
er we assign all the wonders of the human frame, with 
those with which the whole world is replenished, to 
matter or mind—to a being of infinite wisdom, or to 
what has no intelligence, no perception, no power to 
will or choose, but which acts only as the sport of ran- 
dom chance or the slave of blind necessity! It may 
have been “indifferent” to an author, to whom’ uncer- 
tainty on the: most momentous subjects seemed delight- 
ful, and doubt the highest attainment of philosophy ; but 
15 


226 REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. IV. 


I believe it will be indifferent to no one who does not 
prefer an ingenious paradox to the decisions of common 
sense, or a dexterous sophism to truth which every so- 
ber-minded man can perceive. This writer, in justifi- 
cation of such an hypothesis, affirms that there is as 
great difficulty, even admitting the existence of an infi- 
nite mind, in supposing it to originate the most exquisite 
arrangements, as there is in supposing that they may 
result from mere matter; but this position, when divest- 
ed of the profane flippancy with which it is announced, 
is a paradox so obviously absurd, a fallacy so gross, 
that it is difficult to conceive that its own author be- 
lieved it. 

When pressed with those innumerable instances of 
evident design, which, in the structure of man and 
through every part of the economy of nature, are so 
strikingly exhibited, and to which nothing approaching 
to a satisfactory answer has been given by the most re- _ 
fined sophistry which infidelity has displayed, the ad- 
vocates of scepticism endeavor to cover their retreat, 
by perplexing us with difficulties respecting the mode 
of existence, and perception, and action in the Divine 
Being.* From the nature of things it is impossible that 


* A great portion of Mr. Hume’s ‘ Dialogues on Natural Re- 
ligion’ are of this kind; the object of which is not so much to 
prove that there is no God, as to produce a complete scepticism 
on every momentous and practical question relating to his exist- 
ence and character. His aim is to perplex, not to elucidate-—to 
pull down every thing, to build up nothing,—not to elicit truth, 
but to throw every thing into uncertainty and doubt. To ac- 
complish this, Mr. Hume certainly possessed requisites of a very 
high order; to considerable attainments in literature he added 


LECT, IV.] REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. 226 


we should form adequate conceptions of a being so ex- 
alted as the Great First Cause;—how can that which is 
finite comprehend infinity? If we find traces of infi- 
nite wisdom and power, there must be a being who pos- 
sesses these attributes, and no difficulty which we feel 
in conceiving of his mode of existing or acting can at 
all affect the conclusion that such a Being does exist. 
To refer the works of nature to design, implies, it is 
said, a degradation of the Supreme Being,* by asserting 
“a resemblance between the Deity and human crea- 
tures;”’ this the bold sceptic calls “ anthropomorphism;”’ 
a heresy which sprang up in the dark ages of the 
church, and which assigned to the Deity a,human form. 
Is, then, this author really concerned for the honor of the 


the beauties of style, a polished wit, and a great metaphysical 
acuteness. His very deficiencies were such as to heighten his 
qualifications as the advocate of scepticism. To the moral sus- 
ceptibilities of our nature he seemed as much a stranger, as, it is 
said, he was to a taste for music, or a susceptibility to the refin- 
ed pleasures of conjugal love. Hence he could sport with wan- 
ton levity on subjects of the most awful interest, employ his wit 
in endeavoring to render God anda future state ridiculous, 
while he advocated the probable existence of both; and, with 
much that was valuable as a friend and companion, exhibited 
a specimen of what scepticism could do, in teaching a man to 
live doubting—and to die joking ! 


* Dialogues on Natural Religion, by Mr. Hume, p. 57; and 
System of Nature, Vol. II. p. 181—‘ We cannot form the most 
slender idea of the particular nature of that wisdom” (i. e. that 
formed the world; ) “ because if we were for an instant to assim- 
jlate it to our own, weak and feeble as it is, we should be from 
that moment in a state of contradiction,” 


228 REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. IV. 


Great Supreme,—is he so anxious that men should 
form exalted and honorable ideas of him ? Throughout 
the whole work from which we have made quotations, 
he hesitates not to treat him, his attributes, and works, 
with the greatest levity; with a jocose familiarity, in- 
tolerable even in a confirmed sceptic. But there is 


another object in view, which is intended to serve the 


purposes of infidelity ; itis to show that we cannot draw 
any conclusion in favor of a designing mind from the 
works of nature, without implying such “a degradation” 
as is utterly incompatible with our idea of a Divine Be- 
ing. But what degradation does it imply, to assert that 
the Great Supreme possesses in unlimited perfection 
what his creatures, by his own gift, possess in a limited 
degree? Surely wisdom is wisdom, and power is pow- 
er, in whatever degree they may exist, and however 
they may be exhibited, in all the gradations from the 
feeblest creature that is capable of their exercise, to the 
boundless perfection of the uncreated mind. The ob- 
jection is, therefore, frivolous, it leaves our argument 
untouched. The only legitimate inference from a com- 
parison of the works of man with those of nature is, that 
an intelligence exists inconceivably more perfect than 
that which man ‘possesses, and that a wisdom immeas- 
urably surpassing all that is human, must have been 
combined with the power that created man and all the 
wonders of the universe. 

By the professed advocates of atheism, an objection 
of this kind is sometimes carried still farther, and at- 
tempts are made to prove that there is an absurdity in- 
volved in the idea of an néelligent Creator and Govern- 


an 


LECT. Iv.] REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. 229 


or of the universe. ‘An intelligent being,” says one of 


these, “is one who thinks, who wills, who acts, to com- 
pass anend. If so, he must have organs, an aim, con- 
formable to those of man; therefore, to say that nature 
is governed by intelligence, is to affirm that she is gov- 
erned by a being furnished with organs, seeing that 
without this organic construction, he can neither have 
sensations, perceptions, ideas, thoughts, will, plan, nor 
self-understood action.” * Inthe same strain objections 
are frequently urged by this writer, with the evident 
design of forcing those who believe in a Supreme In- 
tellizence to the dilemma of either admitting that there 
must be an infinite and self-existing being with bodily 
organs, which is the absurdity of anthropomorphism, or 
of abandoning the belief in the existence of any intelli- 
gent being distinct from the material world. But if an 
intelligent being is one “who thinks, who wills, who acts 
to compass an end,” then, on this writer’s own showing, 
if we see “an end,’ accomplished by means which dis- 
cover intended adaptation, or, in his own phraseology, 
“an end compassed,” the existence of an intelligent 
being to compass that end must be admitted, whatever 
other consequences may follow. ILappeal, then, to eve- 
ry one who has marked the instances which we have 
adduced of contrivance, adjustment, precaution, whether 
there is not, in the structure of man and in his relations 
to external nature, overwhelming proof of ends, accom- 
plished in this way, and which necessarily require in 
their accomplishment properties which only an intelli- 


* System of Nature,—Vol. I. p. 115, 


230 REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. IV. 


gent being can possess ? The conclusion, then, is inev- 
itable, an intelligent being exists superior to nature, and 
to whom all the works of nature are to be referred. 
There is, also, in the argument this fallacy: because 
the human mind thinks, and wills, and acts, by means 
of bodily organs, therefore, no being can exist who can 
think, and will, and act, without such organs; that is, if 
there be a Creator, he must necessarily be in all re- 
spects like the creature; than which, a more illogical 
inference was never drawn. A self-existent, indepen- 
dent, eternal being, such as the Great First Cause must 
necessarily be, must be immeasurably superior in his 
nature and mode of acting, to any creature which he 
has made. Scarcely will the most confirmed material- 
ist maintain that thought and volition, however they 
may originate, are themselves material, and yet these 
operate on matter, and in some mysterious manner move 
the limbs; what, then, is there unreasonable in the con- 
clusion, that the Great Being who formed man possesses 
all the properties of mind in the highest perfection, with- 
out those corporeal organs which, while they are the me- 
dium by which the mind acts, at the same time limit and 
check its operations. We see instances of skill, spread 
over the whole of nature, so surpassing all that human 
intelligence can contrive or invent, that the conclusion 
is irresistible there must be a contriver, a designer, in- 
finitely superior to all human beings in the attributes of 
mind ; and this conclusion cannot be invalidated by the 
difficulty which, in the nature of things, we ever must 
feel in forming adequate conceptions of the manner in 
which infinite power and intelligence put forth their 
energies. 


LECT. Iv.] REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. 231 


Such, then, my respected auditors, are the principal 
objections which are made by atheistical writers to the 
line of argument which, in the two last lectures, we have 
taken. It is scarcely necessary to remind you that 
there is no proposition, however well supported by ev- 
idence, mathematical demonstration only, perhaps, ex- 
cepted, to which ingenuity may not oppose its objections, 
and against which, sophistry may not urge its cavils. 
We have, I think, fairly met these objections, and allow- 
ed them all their force; and I appeal to your own un- 
derstandings whether, upon a dispassionate review, they 
do not appear, in comparison with the evidence which 
we have adduced, “lighter than vanity.” Nothing that 
the liveliest fancy can imagine—nothing that ingenuity 
can invent—nothing that the most brilliant talents, aided 
by the whole circle of the sciences, can offer to our no- 
tice, can explain the innumerable wonders which sur- 
round us, but the existence of an eternal, an all-wise, 
and infinitely powerful Creator ;—this accounts for all, 
and throws over the whole frame of nature a transcen- 
dent glory, gives to it an unspeakable charm. In the 
assurance of this delightful truth every object glows with 
new beauty, every department of nature is invested with 
additional interest. How comparatively blank and drea- 
ry is every thing in this wide world, when regarded 
as the offspring of chance, or the result of unconscious 
undesigning physical causes, operating by ‘necessary 
laws.” But, viewed as the product of infinite wisdom and 
benevolence, the whole frame of nature forms a de- 
lightful source of the purest pleasures to the contempla- 
tive mind, and instead of damping his joy bythe recol- 


232 REPLY TO OBJECTIONS. [LECT. Iv. 


lection that it is, after all, but a “ fatherless world,” it gives 
full scope to boundless admiration, and fills the glowing 
heart with cheerful gratitude. Let me indulge the hope, 
that, while those who have acknowledged and adored 
the great Creator feel their devotion quickened by such 
views as we have taken of his works, many who have 
hitherto been misled by a false and dangerous philoso- 
phy will be prepared, in future, to unite in the pious 
sentiments which one of our most illustrious bards puts 
into the mouth of the newly created pair. 

“These are thy glorious works, Parent of Good! 

Almighty! thine this universal frame, 


Thus wonderous fair; thyself how wondrous then!” 
Milton’s Paradise Lost.—B. v. 152, &c. 


LECTURE V. 


THE VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US TO 
FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 


ROMANS I. 20—‘‘ FoR THE INVISIBLE THINGS OF HIM, FROM 
THE CREATION OF THE WORLD, ARE CLEARLY SEEN, EVEN 
HIS ETERNAL POWER AND GODHEAD.” 


THeEsE words are extracted from an epistolary com- 
munication addressed by Paul to the Christians at Rome, 
at that time the metropolis of the world, the centre of 
the arts, and the focus of allcrime. The apostle alludes, 
in the connection of our text, according to the opinion 
of some commentators, to those philosophers and states- 
men who, though they plainly saw the follies of poly- 
theism, and knew that there was but one true and living 
God, still sanctioned all the absurdities and immoralities 


of heathen worship, and “ when they knew God, glori- 


234 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US [LECT. V. 


fied him not as God.” He therefore represents them 
as, on this account, the more inexcusable; for he adds, 
“the invisible things of him, from the creation of the 
world, are clearly seen, even his eternal power and 
Godhead.” That is, by the works of creation, the 
glories of his nature, though invisible, are so clearly 
apparent, being reflected as it were in a mirror, that 
these philosophers were exceedingly criminal in not 
publicly recognizing him themselves, and by their teach- 
ing and example leading others, whose debasing supersti- 
tions they rather encouraged, to ‘glorify him as God.” 

To engage in investigating the character and perfec- 
tions of him, “of whom, and through whom, and to 
whom are all things,” as it is the sole prerogative of 
man, among all terrestrial beings, so it is one of the 
noblest exercises of human reason. To neglect inquir- 
ies of this kind is unworthy a human being, and is quite 
as irrational as it is irreligious. But it is often asserted 
by atheistic writers, that even if the existence of a Su- 
preme First Cause as the Creator of all things be ad- 
mitted, it is impossible that we can know any thing 
about him; and that every idea we form of him is not 
merely inadequate and imperfect, but altogether chimer- 
ical and vain.* This, then, is the point to which we 
shall now address ourselves; and we hope to show that, 
notwithstanding the utter imcompetency of creatures 
whose powers are so limited as our own, “to find out 


* Repeated assertions to this effect are to be found in the works 
of infidelity already quoted; they are common in the ‘System 
of Nature,’ and Mr. Hume labors, with all his accustomed 
ingenuity, to prove it. 


LECT. V.] TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 235 


the Almighty to perfection,” we can yet gain such 
glimpses of his boundless glories from the works of na- 
ture as should fill our minds with admiration and awe, 
can obtain such information as is of the greatest prac- 
tical importance, and as should engage us in those mo- 
mentous inquiries which can be met only by a further 
revelation. 

As J am now reasoning with those, principally, who 
do not regard the authority of the sacred scriptures, it 
would be of course irrelevant to appeal to these venera- 
ted writings. Yet, I am fully aware that in reasoning 
on the attributes of the Great Supreme, we cannot di- 
vest our minds of the information which we have re- 
ceived from this source. We cannot, whether believers 
or unbelievers, place ourselves exactly in the circum- 
stances of those whose views of a Supreme creating and 
governing Power have not been corrected and expand- 
ed by the contents of this precious volume. It is well 
known that, in the opinion of many of the greatest learn- 
ing and research, even the pagan philosophers were in- 
debted for some of their most exalted views of the Deity 
to information received more or less directly from the 
ancient writings of the Jews. But our argument will 
not be affected by this consideration, though our inquir- 
ies may be more extended, and our views of what na- 
ture teaches more enlarged; as we shall not ground 
any position on the authority of the sacred writings. 
We may, indeed, be qualified, by the instruction thus 
received, to interrogate nature with advantage; we may 
be assisted in interpreting her language; but it is to 
“the things which are seen,” the visible wonders of 


236 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US [LECT. V. 


“the creation,’ that we shall make our appeal respect- 
ing “the invisible” glories of their Maker; it is on fair, 
legitimate reasoning on these works, that we shall 
found all that we shall now advance respecting their 
author. 

It is scarcely, necessary to apprise my hearers that, 
at this stage of the inquiry, proofs must not be expected 
of the existence of God; these have already been exhib- 
ited, I trust, with ample sufficiency. I must through- 
out this lecture, then, assume this point; the existence 
of a Great First Cause, the Creator of all things, being 
admitted, our question now is, what is-the information 
which nature can supply respecting the author of the 
universe? Our present inquiries, therefore, will relate 
to the Narure, CHaracTeErR, and GovERNMENT of the 
Supreme Being. 

Let us, in the first place, with all reverence, inquire 
what views we should form of the Narure of the 
Great Supreme. ‘T'he existence of an intelligent First 
Cause being admitted, it necessarily follows that this 
great Parent of all existence must be eternal, that is, 
without beginning. The first cause can have no ante- 
cedent. Nothing canbe admitted to have produced that 
which itself produced all things. However mysterious 
and difficult of conception existence without beginning 
may be, we are compelled to arrive at this point, and 
cannot avoid it. To account for the present existence 
of the world, atheism itself is forced to admit that some- 
thing was eternal, and assigns that attribute to matter 
and motion. But we have proved that matter could not 
have been the great originating cause; and are therefore 


LECT. V.| TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 237 


necessarily brought to the conclusion that the Creator is 
without beginning, that is, eternal. How awfully sub- 
lime is this view of him, to whose existence the dura- 
tion of man, of ages, of empires, of worlds, is but a 
moment. 

The same glorious Being must have underived, in- 
dependent, and necessary existence. That which is be- 
fore all can be derived from none; that which is deriv- 
ed from no other being, but on which, as the First 
Cause, all must be dependent, must be independent of 
all, and have self-existence. He whose existence is not 
dependent, nor has the ground or reason of such exist- 
ence in any other being, but has existed from eternity, 
is not in his being contingent, but necessary; that is, 
he cannot but be what he is, to suppose him non-exist- 
ent, is as much a contradiction as to suppose that a thing 
is and is not in the same sense and at the same instant.* 
This is the true idea of necessary self-existence. 

The Great Eternal must also be infinite; we can as- 
sign to him no limits, either in duration or space. 
Boundless as is the universe to our perceptions, it must 
necessarily have limits: form is essential to matter, and 
form cannot exist without boundaries. But the mind 
cannot conceive of any limits to him who gave birth to 
the universe. His necessary existence must, as far as 
we can perceive, be necessary in every point of space, 
as well as in every moment of duration. As we have 


*“ Although necessity of nature may express the manner in 
which an Eternal Being exisis, yet it can be no cause of any ex- 
istence whatever.”—Drew on the Existence and Perfections of 
God. Vol. II. p. 154. 


238 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US [LECT. V. 


before had occasion to remark, we cannot resist the im- 
pression that both eternity and infinity exist; we can- 
not possibly suppose limits to either duration or space ; 
and we can conceive of nothing to which such prop- 
erties can belong, but him who is the self-existent First 
Cause of all things. We cannot, therefore, but consider 
the Eternal Being as also infinite. “ Great is the Lord, 
and his greatness is unsearchable.” How insignificant 
is the whole universe, when compared to him. | 

From the same reasoning, it follows that the Supreme 
Being is immutable. No power exists extraneous to 
himself, which can produce a change on him. Nor 
can it be supposed that he would effect a change in 
his own nature. To will a change to an inferior con- 
dition is impossible; to be in a superior condition is 
equally an impossibility. We cannot conceive of any 
perfection which the Eternal First Cause of all things 
does not possess; therefore, a change for the better or 
the worse is equally impossible. That which has 
necessary existence, that is, is what it is necessarily, 
cannot change, since this is to suppose that it is neces- 
sary and not necessary at the same time, which is a 
contradiction. The face of nature may be ever chang- 
ing, the life of man is subject to a thousand variations, 
generations may pass away, empires rise and fall, 
worlds may perish, suns be extinguished, and systems 
annihilated, while the great and adorable Supreme re- 
mains “without variableness or the shadow ofa turn- 
ing.” 

The omnipresence of the Deity seems also to follow 
from the views which we have taken. As all things 


LECT. V.] TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 239 


are created by him, and dependent on him, we cannot 
conceive the absence of the supporting cause from that 
which it upholds. Through every part of the human 
frame there is a mysterious and unknown something 
which we call life, the pervading influence of which is 
every where necessary, and every where present; the 
instant in which it ceases in any part, or in the whole 
of the bodily structure, disorganization commences, 
Though every comparison must necessarily be inade- 
quate to give a proper idea of the dependence of all 
created beings on the great Creator, yet in some such 
way we may conceive that he is present with all his 
works, “upholding all things by the word of his 
power.” Since by the immensity of his nature he fills 
and includes all things, and has no limits, he must 
be every where. The presence of matter does not 
exclude him, distance of space cannot remove us from 
him. He is alike at the surface and at the centre of 
the globe,—on the land and on the sea,—within us and 
without us. He is present to every particle of our 
bodies, and every movement of our minds, on every 
part of this globe, and at every point in the regions of 
boundless space. Is it any wonder that a pious mind 
should exclaim with devout admiration, “ Whither shall 
I go from thy spirit—or whither shall I flee from thy 
presence? IfTI ascend into heaven thou art there; if 
I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I 
take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the utter- 
most parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead 
me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say surely 
the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be 


240 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US [LECT. V. 


light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee ; 
but the night shineth as the day; the darkness and the 
light are both alike to thee. Such knowledge is too 
wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” * 

This great and infinite Being, we also conclude, is a 
spirit. We cannot, we readily admit, adequately con- 
ceive of an infinite spirit; yet that such is the Divine 
Being, the Great First Cause, we are compelled to be- 
lieve. What spirit is, whether finite or infinite, created 
or uncreated, we do not attempt to explain; we only 
know some of its properties. And what more do we 
know of matter? By means of our senses, we ascer- 
tain that it is something which has extension, solidity, 
and divisibility as its properties ; but itis not extension, 
nor solidity, nor divisibility—not any one, nor all these, 
or other properties which it may possess, put together. 
What is, then, that something of which these are the 
qualities ?— What is that substance, in which these prop- 
erties inhere? This we know not, nor are we likely 
in the present state ever to know. Spirit is that which 
perceives, thinks, wills; but, what is its essence, we 
know no more than we do, what is the essence of mat- 
ter,—and we know just as much. When, therefore, 
we speak of the Divine Being asa spirit, we mean that 
he is a being who perceives, wills, acts; but that the 
properties of matter, such as form and divisibility, do 
not pertain to his nature. That the Great First Cause 
does not possess material properties must follow, from 
the views which we have already taken. Matter is 


* Psalm cxxxix. 


LECT. v.] TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 24] 


ever changing; he who has necessary existence is im- 
mutable, and, therefore, is not material. Matter has 
form, and cannot be infinite; he whose nature is in- 
finite cannot be material. Matter is entirely an object 
of sense ; it is only by our bodily senses that any of its 
properties can be perceived, or its existence ascertained. 
It is only by our own consciousness that we become 
acquainted with the existence and properties of our 
mind or spirit; and by the testimony of others as to 
their consciousness, and our perception of acts similar 
to those which attend our own mental operations, that 
we judge of the existence of sucha spirit in them. The 
Deity is not, cannot be, an object of sense, and cannot, 
therefore, be material. If, then, it be said, why should 
we believe in the existence of a being which cannot be 
an object of perception by our senses? we reply, be- 
cause we see throughout nature innumerable results 
which none of the properties of matter can account for. 
We see effects which only intelligence, wisdom, de- 
sign, could produce;—we have given ample proof 
from these, that an intelligent Creator exists; and since 
there is indubitable evidence of an Intelligent Existence, 
which yet cannot have the properties of matter, we are 
justified in speaking of the Deity as immaterial, in con- 
cluding that he is a’‘Spirit. From the nature of the 
case, an infinite, uncreated, self-existent Spirit must pos- 
Sess properties very different from those of the human 
mind, and those which such a being possesses in com- 
mon with any of his creatures must be inconceivably 
superior. ‘There cannot, of necessity, be any being al- 


together like him; so that, as we have before remarked, 
16 


242 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US [LECT., V. 


to argue from the limitations and defects of the human 
mind to the infinite and self-existing Being, is neither 
‘fair nor philosophical. To say, that we cannot con- 
ceive how an infinite Spirit can exist and act without 
corporeal organs, is one thing; to deny the possibility 
of it is another. If we believe in the existence of those 
things only, the nature and properties and mode of ex- 
istence of which we can fully understand, our belief 
will be reduced within very narrow limits. T'o object, 
therefore, to the spirituality of the divine nature, simply, 
because we cannot comprehend it, is altogether un- 
reasonable, and is a principle on which no atheist does 
act or can act. In a thousand instances we do not 
hesitate to give our full belief to a fact which yet in- 
volves many things completely incomprehensible to us. 
All that we require in such cases is, that there should 
be proof or evidence of the fact. If, therefore, it be 
proved that there is a First Cause, possessing the high- 
est attributes of mind, and if it also appears that this 
First Cause does not possess the properties of matter, 
both which, we conceive, have been undeniably shown, 
then, whatever difficulties attend our conceptions of so 
exalted a being, it follows that the First Cause is im- 
material, or, in other words, that the Creator of the 
universe is a Spirit, and “the Father of our spirits.” 
Another view to which our contemplations on the 
works of nature seem necessarily to lead, is, that this 
great Being is the only God. Having once proved 
the existence of an eternal and intelligent Creator, we 
have a cause sufficient to account for the existence of 
the Wniverse, with all the beings, and provisions, and 


LECT. V.] TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 243 


arrangements, which it contains. We have no need to 
have recourse to any other power; all other agency is 
superfluous. If, as it has often been justly remarked, 
any person should affirm that there is a plurality of 
Gods, the burden of proof would lie on him. It is an 
assumption without any thing to support it. Look 
through all nature; as far as we can extend our obser- 
vations, unity of design and harmony of operations are 
every where apparent. ‘Take one single being, from 
any department of organic nature; a flower, a tree, an 
insect, a quadruped, a man; in each individual there is 
a complexity of parts, and organs, and functions; but all 
this diversity is, in the most obvious manner, working 
with perfect harmony to one end. Look at the relation 
of each individual species to others of a different rank 
or order, and of all to external nature in general, and 
the same idea is impressed onthe mind. Look, indeed, 
through the whole system, and what other view can be 
consistently taken? From the sun to the remotest 
planets, from the surface of the earth to its centre, -you 
see one law operating with undeviating uniformity— 
the law of gravitation. It is this power which, nicely 
balanced with the projectile force, maintains all the re- 
lations of the vast bodies of thé solar system; it is this 
which binds the earth into a solid mass; the operations 
of which are alike seen on the land and on the sea, on 
the atmosphere which surrounds the earth, the vapors 
which rise, the winds that blow, and the rains that fall ; 
in every world, and every atom, we see the effects of 
this great principle, No one can attentively view all 
the arrangements which exist throughout the whole 


244 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES Us [LECT. Y, 


economy of nature, the connection of every part with the 
others, and its dependence on the whole, with the won- 
derful harmonies which attend the working of the en- 
tire system, without being struck with the unity of de- 
sign which is every where apparent, and feeling, if he 
is prepared to acknowledge any Creator at all, “that 
there is one God, and there is none beside him.” The 
supposition that there is more than one eternal, self-ex- 
istent, and independent Being, is not only perfectly 
gratuitous, but seems to shock the mind and to repel 
belief; and it is much to be doubted whether ever such 
an opinion was sincerely entertained.* Among all the 
varieties and absurdities of ancient polytheism, we never 
meet with such an idea. Inall the pagan mythologies, 
we see traces of one Supreme Being, with a number of 
subordinate divinities; allthe philosophers of antiquity, 
who maintained the existence of any Deity, appear to 
have considered the Eternal Being as only one. “In 


«For if we suppose more than one,” (i. e. God,) “ it is plain, 
since the attributes of infinite power, knowledge, and goodness 
include all possible perfection, that they must be entirely alike to 
each other, without the least possible variation. They will, 
therefore, entirely coalesce in our idea, i.e. be one to us.— 
Since they fill ail time and space, and are all independent, om- 
nipotent, omniscient, and infinitely benevolent, their ideas can- 
not be separated, but will have a numerical, as well as a generic- 
al identity! “When we suppose other beings generically the 
same, and yet numerically different, we do, at the same time, 
Suppose that they exist in different particles of time or space; 
which circumstances cannot have place, in respect of the suppo- 
sed plurality of infinite beings. We conclude, therefore, that 
there is but one Infinite Being, or God.”—Hartley on Man, p. 
341, ed. 6th. 


LECT. V.] TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 245 


SO great a contention and variety of opinions,” says a 
celebrated heathen philosopher, “ herein you shall see 
the law and reason of every country to be harmonious 
and one; that there is one God, the King and Father 
of all. That the many are but the servants: and co- 
rulers unto God. That herein the Greek and the bar- 
barian say the same thing; the islander and the in- 
habitant of the continent.” * 

We shall now proceed to consider what information 
we may derive from the works of nature, in addition to 
what we have already noticed, respecting the Cuarac- 
TER of the Divine Being. By the character of God, I 
here mean those qualities which pertain to him and dis- 
tinguish him, by which his acts are regulated and de- 
termined. These have frequently been denominated 
the attributes or perfections of Deity, and have been . 
considered as either natural or moral; the former in- 
dicating his capabilities of acting, the latter, the manner 
in which these capabilities are employed. The term 
natural is thus applied to the means which a rational 
being possesses of accomplishing his will; while the 
properties which mark his actions as good or bad, as 
directed to a proper or improper end, are designated his 
moral qualities. When we speak of these as properties 
of the glorious Being who is at the head of the universe, 


* Maximus Tyrius, Dis. I. as quoted by Howe in his ‘ Living 
Temple,’ Part I. ch. ii. sec. 2. Maximus Tyrius was a philoso- 
pher of considerable celebrity, who, though a native of Tyre, ob - 
tained very high distinction in Rome for his learning and talents, 
where he taught in the second century, during the reign of the 
philosophic emperor Marcus Aurelius, 


246 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US [LECT. V. 


we call them his attributes, and because they are con- 
ceived to dwell in him in the highest serine we 
speak of them as his perfections. 

The natural attributes of the Deity may, perhaps, all 
be comprised under his Wispom and his Power. 
What, then, does nature teach us concerning these ? 

One of the first impressions which we receive from a 
comprehensive survey of the works of God is, that he is 
infinitely wise; that is, that wisdom exists in him with- 
out any assignable limit, in its highest possible perfec- 
tion. Knowledge is absolutely essential to wisdom, 
and, indeed, forms its very element. Knowledge and 
wisdom may be separable in men; they are identified 
in the Supreme Being. Men may have knowledge on 
many subjects of a speculative nature, and be very defi- 
- cient in what relates to human conduct; such cannot be 
wise. Wisdom is exhibited by the selection of proper 
ends, and of proper means by which they are to be ac- 
complished. Though wisdom, as resulting from exten- 
sive observation and long experience, may be possessed, 
with ignorance of a thousand subjects, yet it always 
supposes knowledge of those subjects to which it relates. 
In fact, wisdom is only knowledge considered in a 
practical view. In the Divine Being, therefore, perfect 
knowledge must be the perfection of wisdom. He who 
perfectly knows all things, in their nature, their rela- 
tions, and consequences, must know on every possible 
occasion what is best to be done, and the best way in 
which to accomplish it. As we have proved that the 
Great First Cause is an intelligent Being, his knowl- 
edge must be universal in extent and perfect in its kind, 


LECT. V.] TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 247 


and consequently infinite wisdom, or wisdom in its 
highest possible excellence, must be his. 

He who created all things must have a perfect knowl- 
edge of all things, since they all received with their ex- 
istence their peculiar powers and properties from him. 
It must also be apparent, from what we have already 
shown, that he must be acquainted with every thing ex- 
isting at any one time, since he is omnipresent. He 
must, therefore, intimately know all beings that exist, 
with all their properties; all the combinations of matter 
in suns or planets, or men, or worms, and all the indi- 
vidual particles of matter, wherever they exist, and 
equally all that mind is, in its innumerable diversities, 
and in its most secret workings. And as he:has ever 
been present with all that is past, and possesses none of 
those defects which pertain to finite minds and bodily 
organization, he must know every thing that has trans- 
pired in the great universe from its first formation. He 
must know the size, and place, and history of every 
atom, in all the combinations it has undergone from its 
first creation; together with every action and every 
motive, every volition and every imagination, every 
word and every thought of every individual that has 
lived, and spoken, and acted, since the formation of the 
first man. And all the future must be known to him; 
for, as he gave to matter all its properties and laws, he 
must know the effect which every cause will produce 
throughout the whole course of nature, and, consequent- 
ly, all the results of the first creation. And as even in 
the mind, with all its waywardness and apparent irreg- 
ularities, there is nothing absolutely contingent, but one 


248 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US [LECT. ¥. 


thought or feeling ledds on to another and is linked 
with it; and as certain states of mind, in certain circum- 
stances, lead to certain actions, he must know with equal 
certainty what all the purposes, and thoughts, and mo- 
tives, and actions of every intelligent being in the uni- 
verse will be. It follows then, necessarily, that as the 
great Supreme knows always what has been, and is, 
and will be, in the most perfect manner, he knows what 
is the best end and what the best means by which it 
should be effected; what in every case ought to be done, 
and how it should be done; and this is the highest pos- 
sible wisdom. | 

[t is unnecessary to remind you how completely 
these reasonings are supported by our observations on 
the whole frame of nature. How exquisite and innu- 
merable are the instances of divine skill in the human 
frame; how diversified are the exhibitions of this divine 
attribute in all that flies, or creeps, or swims! In all 
the chemical and mechanical properties of matter, 
in all the varied combinations of the constituents of 
this globe, the properties peculiar to each, the laws 
which govern them, and the purposes which they 
serve,—in the,system as a whole and in its minut- 
est parts, the contemplative mind cannot fail to be- 
hold traces of the most consummate wisdom, and with 
sentiments of devout admiration to exclaim,—‘ The 
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament 
showeth forth his handy work.’’—* The earth, O Lord, 
is full of thy riches.”’ 

That the Creator is a being to whose PowrEr no 
bounds can be assigned, is equally evident from his 


LECT. V.] TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 249 


works. How great their number, how surpassing their 
variety! The existence of any one single species, 
either of the vegetable or animal kingdom, is a display 
of power which leaves every thing that can be accom- 
plished by human effort at an immeasurable distance. 
All the energies which man can command, though con- 
centrated in one single act, and aided by all the resources 
of human art, would be as incapable of producing the 
smallest insect as they are of removing the world, or of 
stopping the planets in their orbits. And how won- 
derfully varied are the tribes of living beings, rational 
and irrational, that inhabit the forest or tenant the deep, 
that soar in the air or creep on the ground? And who 
shall number all the diversities and wonders of the veg- 
etable kingdom? How astonishing and how various 
‘are the powers with which the great Creator has in- 
vested the material agencies which we see at work, 
either in the regular course of nature or in its occasion- 
al deviations! Before these man feels his insignificance, 
stands in awe of that omnipotent energy of whose will 
they are the ministers, and confesses that he is as 
“nothing and vanity.” How deep are the emotions, 
how overpowering is the awe with which a contempla- 
tive mind beholds the bosom of the ocean heaving with 
its tides, or roaring and foaming with its mountain bil- 
lows; or watches the clouds of heaven in a gathering 
storm ; or listens to the reverberations of the deafening 
thunder; or marks the ravages of the wild tornado; or 
trembles at the earthquake, and stands aghast at the 
awful exhibitions of volcanic power! “Lo, these are 
parts of his ways; but how little a portion is heard of 


200 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES us [LECT. V. 


him? But the thunder of his power who can under- 
stand?” 

But all the wonders of this world, innumerable as 
they are, form but a very small part of what we should 
behold, were we capable of taking in the mighty whole. 
The universe is the scene of Divine operations. Our 
own globe is but a small spot in this vast field of won- 
ders—but one among a countless host. Who can number 
the stars of heaven, or even imagine the untold myriads 
of those celestial bodies, which, though glimmering 
through the night as luminous specks, or seen only by 
the highest magnifying powers of the telescope, appear 
to be central sources of light and heat to as many sys- 
tems of worlds? ’ 

Think for a moment on the great and the minute in 
creation, and be astonished at the exhibition of Divine 
power. We are lost in the contemplation. of either. 
What a vast ball is this globe, about twenty-four thou- 
sand miles in circumference, spinning on its axis with 
unceasing and most uniform velocity; and at the same 
time flying round the sun at a mean rate of about fifty- 
eight thousand miles an hour. But yonder planet which 
traverses the plains of ether, which we sometimes call 
an evening star, is one thousand four hundred times the 
size of this globe; and the sun, the centre of the sys- 
tem, much more than a million times as large. Con- 
sider, again, the mighty sweep which that stupendous 
orrery, the Solar System, takes. The earth describes an 
orbit of nearly six hundred millions of miles; but far 
beyond this, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Georgian 
planet perform their revolutions; the latter at such a 


LECT. V.| TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 251 


distance from the centre that a cannon-ball, if it could 
continue its speed, would be one hundred and seventy 
years * in passing from the sun to that planet; and a 
flash of lightning from the sun’s disc would be two 
hours and a half before it could be seen in the regions 
of that distant globe. And if these are the distances of 
the parts of one system, what must be the whole? How 
overwhelming is the thought of such immensity; how 
awful is the idea of such a power! Look now at the 
minute. In human efforts we seldom see delicacy and 
energy combined. The ship-builder and the watch- 
maker cannot work with the same tools; the habits of 
each would disqualify him for the employment of the 
other. The skilful engraver, with his delicate instru- 
ments, cannot make canals and aqueducts and rail-roads 
and tunnels; and the civil] engineer, with all his appa- 
ratus for constructing bridges and water-works, cannot 
prepare the nice adjustments of a chronometer, or mark 
the exquisite divisions of some of our optical instru- 
ments, ‘The mind accustomed to the vast scarcely ever 
excels in the minute. But in the works of the Divine 
artist, we see both exemplified. That power which 
moulded the solid globe into its form, paints the wing 
of the butterfly, and weaves, with intersecting muscles 
of the most delicate texture, the iris of the eye. He 
who lights up the sun, as the centre of a system of 
worlds, and regulates the distances and motions of the 
planetary bodies, fits up the lenses of the organ of vis- 


* That is, supposing its speed to be as much as twenty miles in 
a minute, 


252 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US [LECT. v. 


jon, and fixes at its proper distance, with the minutest 
accuracy, the nervous screen which is to receive the 
rays of light. In all the most finished productions of 
the works of art the microscope can detect defects, the 
smoothest polish is course and rough, and the most 
beautiful regularity appears clumsy. In the works of 
God we find precisely the reverse, the greater the mag- 
nifying power the more beauties and wonders, of ex- 
quisite skilland workmanship, we perceive. The won- 
derful power of the Creator is equally displayed in 
maguitude of form and compass of movement, the vast: 
ness of which cannot be taken in by the mind; and in 
what has delicacy so fine that the unassisted eye can- 
not detect it. He who formed the elephant, made the 
mite. He who made that stupendous system of worlds, 
which at such inconceivable distances whirl around the 
central sun, made the blood-vessels, and nerves, and the 
digesting apparatus, and all the fitting up and mutual 
adjustments of the several organs and parts in the mi- 
croscopic animalcule, thousands of which are necessary 
to constitute a speck of sufficient nragnitude to be visi- 
ble to the human eye. With what emphasis do all 
his works declare, that “the Almighty is excellent in 
power.” : 

Let us now inquire, what are the conclusions which, 
from these views of the Divine Being, which we have 
already taken, we are warranted to draw respecting his 
Morat Prrrections. How terrific would be the 
thought, if it could be for a moment entertained, that in- 
finite power and wisdom might be employed, in an im- 
proper manner. But a few moments’ consideration 


LECT. v.]| TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 253 


will convince us that this is impossible. All the moral 
qualities of any rational being may be, perhaps, resolv- 
ed into these two—Jusrice and BENEVOLENCE. 
Justice “has respect to the persons and rights of 
others.’”* As this great and awful Being, who is at 
the head of the universe, who has created all things, 
possesses power unlimited over all.the works of his 
hands, how shall we be satisfied that he will never so 
act as to inflict a wrong on his creatures? To which 
momentous inquiry it may be replied with confidence, 
that we have this security in those perfections of his 
Divine nature which we have already considered. His 
infinite wisdom renders mistake, on any occasion, im- 
possible. He always sees things as they are in their 
nature and consequences. Every act of injustice or 
wrong stipposes a mistake. Every crime is a practical 
error. If a person inflicts an injury on another by 
withholding what is his due, or by any act of violence 
or aggression, relating either to his property, or char- 
acter, or person, without knowing or intending the 
wrong, the action, in its character, is still injurious and 
wrong, though he is acquitted from criminal intention; 
but still, if the aggressor had the means and qoantgil, 
ty of knowing what was right, and neglected to avail 
himself of them, he is considered culpable; and much 
more so, if his mistake in judgment arose from the in- 
dulgence in evil passions which obscured his reason, 
and prevented his discernment. If a man commits an 
injury, knowing at the same time that he is doing 


* Grove’s Moral Philosophy.—Vol. II. p. 329. 


254 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES Us [LECT. V. 


wrong, he is still laboring under an erroneous impres- 
sion, he chooses evil under the semblance of good; he 
supposes that it will promote his happiness, while he is 
evidently preparing misery for himself, and thus at the 
same time injuring two parties,—the immediate object 
of his wrong, and himself. As, therefore, every act of 
injustice appears to involve a mistake, and the Divine 
Being, who is infinitely wise, cannot err, we conclude 
that injustice is impossible with him. 

And, farther, his supreme glory and dominion, as the 
Creator and Proprietor of the universe, assure us that 
he cannot be otherwise than just. The temptations and 
occasions of committing crime, which lead men to acts 
of injustice, can never exist in the case of this exalted 
Being. Even in the most depraved characters we can 
scarcely imagine how wrong can be done purely for 
the sake of doing wrong; there is some object in view 
which gives occasion to the misdeed. It may be the 
fear of losing something which he possesses, or the 
hope of acquiring what he has not; it may the dread of 
punishment for what he has done, and the desire of 
concealing what he knows to be criminal, or the belief 
that the person whom he desires to injure is out of the 
reach of common justice:—these and many similar 
things, which it is needless to mention, generally form 
the occasions of the injuries and wrongs which men in- 
flict on others. It is rarely, if ever, that acts of palpa- 
ble injustice are committed without some such occa- 
sions. But with the glorious Being of whom we are 
now speaking, it is utterly impossible that any such-oc- 
casions can occur. He is infinitely exalted above the 


LECT. V.] TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 200 


reach of them all.. There is nothing which he can 
fear, nothing for which he can hope. There can be no 
object of dread to omnipotent power and independent 
existence; there can be no object of desire which is not 
possessed by him who is the proprietor of the whole 
universe. As, therefore, nothing can appear to infinite 
wisdom right which is wrong, and no occasion can 
possibly arise which could be an inducement to the su- 
preme Lord of all things to commit any act of injustice, 
we may confidently affirm that justice, in the highest 
perfection, is his; that he is “righteous in all his ways, 
and holy in all his works.” 

That Benevoence, in the highest degree in which 
it is compatible with wisdom and justice, belongs to the 
Deity, there can be no reasonable doubt. We have 
proofs of this continually and every where. Volumes 
might be written on the innumerable forms of Divine 
goodness which appear through all his works. De- 
lightful as is the theme, it is unnecessary for us to en- 
large on what must be so manifest to all. who observe 
and think. There is not a single department in the 
economy of nature, that is not pregnant with illustrations 
of the Divine benevolence.. Do we not see it in all the 
arrangements of the Solar System ?—in the great source 
of light and heat that blazes in the centre, that all the 
dependent bodies might share in those important bene- 
fits,—in the adjustment of those forces by which the 
planets are kept moving in their orbits,—in the inclina- 
tion of the earth’s axis to mitigate the cold of the polar 
regions,—in the moon and stars, by which the nightly 
firmament is lighted up and studded with sparkling 


256 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US’ [LECT. V. 


gems,—in the revolution of the earth on its axis, in order 
that every part should be successively turned to the sun, 
and enjoy the benefit of its rays? Look at the properties 
of the atmosphere, the arrangements made for the due 
supply of water, the fertility of the soils, the great variety 
of minerals, and the supply of vegetable productions, to 
serve for food in health and medicine in sickness ; observe 
the innumerable forms of beauty and grandeur with 
which the heart is delighted and refreslred as we gaze on 
the works of nature; observe how pleasure and enjoy- 
ment are connected with every sense :—it is delightful to 
see, to hear, to touch, to taste, to smell: there is enjoyment 
inthe very consciousness of being; in all the social 
affections which sweeten the domestic circle, bind man 
to man, and form the links of society: in all the charities 
of the heart, which are blessed in blessing, how conspic- 
uously does the diffusive benevolence of a good and gra- 
cious Being shine! But where ‘shall we stop? the 
theme is boundless: “ How excellent is thy loving-kind- 
ness, O God; therefore the children of men put their 
trust under the shadow of thy wings.” “Bless the 
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his 
holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not 
all his benefits.” 

We shall proceed, in the third and last place, to con- 
sider what views we are justified in forming of the Gov- 
ERNMENT of God. This may beregarded in two aspects: 
His ProvipENTIAL Government, which has reference 
to the well-being of all his creatures; and his Morat 
Government, which relates to the conduct of rational 
beings. 


LECT. v.] TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 257 


That God does exercise a providential government 
over all his works; or; in other words, that he exercises 
a constant care and unlimited control over the objects of 
his creating power, seems to be a just and natural infer- 
ence from the premises already established. As all 
owe their existence and the continuance of that existence 
to him, all creatures must ever remain dependent on 
him, and subject to his will and pleasure. It is most 
unreasonable to suppose that he should abandon, as un- 
worthy his regard, what by his own power he had 
brought into being. From the nature of things, every 
portion of matter and every living creature must be con- 
stantly present to him; and we cannot imagine that he 
who willed their existence should be indifferent to their 
welfare. His providence, therefore, must be particular 
as well as general: he who cares for the whole, must 
care for every part, seeing the whole is nothing but an 
aggregation of parts. The supposition that it would be 
derogatory to the dignity of so great and glorious a Be- 
ing, to pay attention to what appears to us minute and 
trifling, isa mistake which seems to arise from a partial 
and superficial view of the subject. It is a transfer of 
the limitations and imperfections of our own minds to 
the infinite Creator. When we contemplate an aggre- 
gate, we lose sight of the parts in detail; when we in- 
spect the minute, we are obliged so to concentrate our 
minds, that we cannot at the same time take in ampli- 
tude. But these limitations can have no place in that 
infinite Being whose omnipresence fills all space, and 
whose omniscience includes all knowledge. However 


insignificant many things may seem in themselves, yet 
17 


258  vikWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US [LECT. V. 


in their relation to the great whole, no atom of matter, 
no act of mind, no occurrence in any of the departments 
of nature, can be considered trifling. Inthe great chain 
of events, some links appear to us great and prominent, 
others seem almost imperceptibly small and insignifi- 
cant, yet the greatest depend on the least, and the ab- 
sence of one of the latter would produce an alteration 
in the whole depending series. The fate of an empire 
may depend on the fall ofa pebble. ‘To how great an 
extent has the condition of Europe been influenced by 
the life of one single individual! And by how many 
little incidents, from his infancy to the period when he 
commenced his public career, may his very existence 
have been affected! Every such incident, then, was 
connected with the present state of the nations of Ku- 
rope, and by this with the future condition of the whole 
world. Who can imagine what would have been the 
present circumstances of the human race, if the infant 
Romulus had perished in the waters of the Tiber? It 
is reasonable, then, to infer that the Great Being on 
whom the whole is dependent, must exercise his super- 
intendence over its minutest fraction. And have we 
not proofs without end, that his wisdom and power have 
been employed in the formation of all living things ;— 
that his benevolent designs embraced all the minutiee 
of animal life?’ Why, then, should it be supposed that 
any thing on which he has expended his power and 
employed his wisdom, and in the production of which 
his benevolence is so richly displayed, should ever be 
abandoned by him, or be viewed with indifference? We 
conclude, therefore, that all things in heaven or earth, 


LECT. V.] TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 259 


however great or minute,—that all creatures, of every 
rank of being,—that all events, of all kinds, are under 
the superintendence and control of him who is, “ won- 
derful in counsel, and mighty in working.” 

There are two distinct views which have been taken 
of the manner in which this superintendence is exercis- 
ed by the great Governor of the universe, both of which, 
however, imply the universality of his providence. It 
is conceived by some that the great Creator, having 
brought all things into being, gave to universal nature 
laws, by which, as a machine once set in motion, it 
goes on without any subsequent act of power or inter- 
ference of its Maker, accomplishing “ the good pleasure 
of his will.” In this case all things are evidently sub- 
ject to his control; inasmuch as these. laws continue 
only in such a manner and for such a time as he sees 
fit; consequently, whenever he pleases, he has power 
to alter, to suspend, or abrogate these laws; all nature, 
therefore, continues what it is, and proceeds as it does, 
just according to his pleasure and during his pleasure. 

The other view taken of this subject is, that there is 
an immediate and constant superintendence exercised 
over the whole creation; in this view it is considered 
that all which we term the laws of nature, are but the 
operations of divine power, in a certain and uniform 
manner. And arethere not some considerations which 
tend strongly to favor this opinion? Reflect for a mo- 
ment on the universal law of gravitation, according to 
which all matter attracts and is attracted, with this re- 
markable condition, that its power depends not on the 
simple ratio of the distance, but inversely on the squares 


260 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US [LECT. V. 


of the distance. ‘Take, now, the sun and the earth, 
ninety-five millions of miles distant from each other, 
and yet, according to the phenomena of gravitation, 
every particle in the mass of each body exerts an influ- 
ence on every particle in the other. How can we con- 
ceive of any material agency acting in this powerful 
manner where it is not, and at a distance so immense ? 
Describe in your imagination the vast circumference 
which bounds the Solar System, with a compass which 
stretches its span to one thousand eight hundred mil- 
lions of miles: around the central sun the primary 
planets are revolving at their respective distances, many 
of which are again the centres of secondary planets, 
which, attendant on their primaries, performing their 
revolutions also round the sun, obey the law of gravi- 
tation; and to every point of this stupendous circle, 
every particle of the sun and of every planet, primary 
and secondary, is sending forth a power or exerting an 
influence; and every single atom is ever, according to 
the received theory, acting on every other atom through- 
out the vast system, and yet these emanations from 
every particle to every particle, in every direction, never 
interfere with each other, nor obstruct each other’s op- 
erations. Who can have any conception of the mode 
of such action? The utmost philosophy can say in 
explanation is, that the results are as though there 
were such action. And would it not be quite as phi- 
losophical, and more satisfactory, to resolve these phe- 
nomena into the constant energy of Him who fills all 
space, thus exercising his power continually, or, in other 
words, willing that results should follow each other in 


LECT. V.] TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 261 


such an order? Look again at that mysterious some- 
thing which we call life, or vital power, in vegetables 
and animals; that power by which the embryo seed 
unfolds, throws out its roots, attracts to its capillary 
tubes certain particles, and such only as it needs for its 
further development, assimilates these into its own sub- 
stance, and forms gradually the stem, the leaves, the 
calyx, the blossom, and, finally, by the formation of a 
curious organization, brings about a reproduction of a 
new plant similar to the parent stock. Look at animal 
life, mark the properties which it imparts to an organ- 
ization which is the subject of it, to resist to a certain 
degree the action of physical agents, such as air, moist- 
uré, and heat; to decompose all the foreign substances 
from which it derives nourishment when taken into the 
stomach, and from them to form new combinations, 
which shall supply every tissue, every vessel, and every 
organ, and finally to produce other living beings with 
similar parts and organs. Who, we ask, can explain 
these mysteries? There is much of chemical action, 
there is much of mechanical operation in the physiol- 
ogy of animals and vegetables, but there is, besides, 
what neither chemistry, nor mechanism, nor physical 
action of any kind can explain,—there isa vital power, 
—that is, there is the presence of a mysterious agency 
which none can understand or imitate. What, then, it 
may be asked, is this mysterious agency, which we call 
the vital power, (which term explains nothing,) but the 
invisible and untiring energy of Him who “lives 
through all life,” and “by whom all things consist ?” 
Does not, also, that connection of any of the phenom- 


262 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES Us [LECT. V. 


ena of nature, which we term the relation of cause and 
effect, seem inexplicable on any other principle?) How 
can we understand in any other way why the motion 
of one body should be communicated to another; or 
how matter should act at all on matter, when, in all 
probability, no two particles are ever in actual .contact? 
The presence of an omnipotent agency, enforcing his 
own laws on his own creation, seems at once the most 
simple and the only satisfactory solution that can be 
given. 

Perhaps the very uniformity and constancy of these 
laws, the fixed connection between causes and effects, 
so that like causes produce like effects,—perhaps the 
_ very regularity of the course of nature, is one cause 
why the constant agency of the Divine power is not 
more distinctly recognized. But the uniformity with 
which certain effects are linked to certain causes, by 
which one particular result is seen to follow a particu- 
lar condition that preceded it, is absolutely necessary to 
our welfare, indeed to our very existence. How is it 
possible that any course of action could have been com- 
menced, that any provision could have been made, that 
any precaution could have been taken, if it had been a 
matter of uncertainty what effects would follow from 
any given causes? If fire had sometimes produced 
heat and sometimes cold, if a stone let fall from the 
hand had sometimes descended, and at others, had moved 
in a horizontal direction or glanced upwards, if at dif- 
ferent times the same external objects produced opposite 
sensations, if the impressions on the organs of sense 
were followed by very different perceptions, if there 


LECT. V.] TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 263 


had not been fixed and constant laws for the succession 
of the various phenomena, we could have calculated on 
nothing, all would have been uncertainty and confusion ; 
reason would have beeri worthless, instinct useless, or 
rather neither could have existed ; and the whole frame 
of nature would have been only a wild and disordered 
chaos. To say the least, we can have no conception 
how such a state of things could have been compatible 
with the welfare of sentient and rational beings. 
That the divine energy works throughout nature with 
this uniformity, appears to be the result of wisdom and 
goodness, adapting the whole to the condition of the 
ereatures which he has made. 

With this unremitting superintendence we must not 
connect the exhaustion which we feel by continued 
effort: infinite power knows no weariness. Its exer- 
cise must be very different from that of human power; 
—it is not muscular action, nor mechanical force, but, 
as far as we can understand, the mere volition of his 
will; perhaps more nearly resembling those acts of 
our own will, by which, without any feeling of exertion, 
we put forth a power which is instantly obeyed by any 
of the voluntary muscles. Such is that act of power, 
the description of which, by Moses, is quoted with 
admiration bya heathen writer, “ God said, Let there be 
light,—and there was light.” 

These two views, however, differ merely as to the 
mode of action, and amount to the same thing, as far as 
our argument is concerned: one, supposing His omnip- 
otence exerted in the single act which bade creation 
yield obedience to fixed and certain laws; the other, 


264 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US [LECT. V. 


regarding what we term laws, as one continued act, 
as the constant and uniform exercise of His power. 
Whichever view we adopt, they both lead to this con- 
clusion, that as all things were brought into being by 
the great Creator, and received their original properties 
from him, so all things are dependent on him and under 
his superintendence. 

But though the whole course of nature, so far as 
physical causes operate, be considered as under his 
control, how, it may be asked, can those events be sub- 
ject to his direction which depend on the conduct of 
voluntary agents? To which it may be replied, that 
as long as rational beings act voluntarily, their acts are 
undoubtedly their own, and they are, in such cases, to 
all intents and purposes, free agents, as every person 
must feel, who considers the workings of his own 
mind, without embarrassing himself with metaphysical 
difficulties. But still, as the condition and the conduct 
of rational beings depend much on those physical 
agencies, the laws of which are the ordination of divine 
wisdom, and the execution of which is secured by 
divine power; as the manner in which the body and 
the mind mutually affect each other is the appointment 
of the Creator; and as the laws of mind as well as of 
matter originated with him who is “the Father of Spir- 
its,” he must have all the events which depend on vol- 
untary action as much under his cognizance and control 
as those which result from the action of mere physical 
causes. However great, then, may be the difficulties, 
to our comprehension, attending the administration of 
an economy so vast and complicated, we must conclude, 


LECT. V.] TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 265 
from the view we have taken of the Divine perfections, 
that the great Governor of the universe will bring the 
whole scheme of providence to such an issue as shall 
be in every respect worthy of himself. 

But do the views which we have hitherto taken of 
the Author and Governor of nature, authorize us to 
form any conclusions respecting the Mora ‘GovERN- 
MENT of the great Creator? By moral government 
we mean that control which is exercised over the con- 
duct of intelligent beings, by a system of rewards and 
punishments suited to their rational nature. ‘That man 
possesses faculties which render him a proper subject 
of such control, none, we presume, will doubt. He has 
a capacity of thinking and reasoning; of perceiving 
the nature and relation of things with which he is 
conversant; of discriminating between right and wrong; 
of refusing what he perceives to be evil, and choosing 
what he apprehends to be good; and of reflecting with 
approbation or disaprobation on those intentions which 
give to every action its true character of good or evil. 
This power of voluntary action, combined with his 
capability of perceiving the nature, and grounds, and 
consequences of an action, renders him responsible for 
his conduct in any given case. On this responsibility, 
according to his several relations to his fellow-crea- 
tures, he is ever acting. Asa child amenable to his 
parent, a servant to his master, a subject to his sove- 
reign, the sovereign himself to the laws, he recognizes 
his accountability; in every situation of social life 
there is and must be some responsibility which guides 
and controls his actions. If, then, the several relations 


266 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US’ [LECT. V. 


of society impose duties which are of indispensable 
obligation, can the relation which man sustains to the 
great Being who created him, to whom he is indebted 
for ten thousand comforts, by whose power he is pre- 
served in existence, and on whose goodness he is ever 
dependent, be alone without its duties? Can it be sup- 
posed that the nearer the connection and the more com- 
plete the dependence, the less there is of duty involved 
in the relation? Is it not the dictate of reason, that 
every living being with which man is in any way con- 
nected is entitled to certain duties from him, appropri- 
ate to the relation sustained, from the lowest animal 
that ministers to his wants or pleasures, to the great 
Fountain of existence who is at the head of the uni- 
verse? And if there are duties owing to the Creator 
and Preserver of men from all his intelligent creatures, 
can any one be guiltless who neglects to inquire what 
these duties are, or who refuses a practical recognition 
of them; or, can we imagine that “the Judge of the 
whole earth” will make no distinction between the 
obedient and disobedient ? 

But by what law is the morality of man’s actions to 
be determined?’ Certainly by the will of the Supreme 
Creator, if that will can be ascertained; and that will 
must express what is right and proper in the view of 
Infinite Wisdom. From the present condition of man, 
we are led to infer that the primary law, the law of na- 
ture, was not left on perishable records, nor trusted to 
traditionary transmission: amidst all the way wardness, 
and folly, and crime of man, do we not perceive distinct 
traces of a law written on the tablets of his heart, inter- 


LECT. V.] TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 267 


woven into the very texture of his nature? It seems as 
much a matter of feeling as of reasoning, that some 
things are right and others wrong, and that intrinsical- 

ly considered, independent of their consequences. Not- 
withstanding all the theories, the object of which is to 
confound virtue and vice, by making them entirely de- 
pendent on circumstances, and thus to annihilate the 
essential distinctions of right and wrong; notwithstand- 

ing all the caprice and disorder of the passions, and the 
unaccountable eccentricities of individuals, is there a 
man, who does not, at some times, at least, reproach 
himself, or indulge a feeling of complacency, according 
to his judgment, of the moral fitness and propriety of 
his actions?’ Has there ever been a nation or an age. 
however peculiar in its usages or strange in its man- 
ners, that has considered lying, and stealing, and cruel- 
ty, and ingratitude, in themselves virtues ;—and truth, 

and honesty, and kindness, and gratitude vices?* A 


* Perhaps the case of Sparta will be cited as an exception, in 
which state private theft was permitted, if it could escape detec- 
tion, while severity of punishment followed its discovery. But 
it is obvious to every one who has considered this peculiarity of 
Lacedemonian legislation, that it was the toleration of a private 
injury, to secure what was considered a public advantage. Situ- 
ated as was their little state, and dependent only for its safety on 
its superior military prowess and habits of constant vigilance, 
the object of this peculiar license was to foster, on the one hand, 
a watchfulness that should be never taken by surprise; and, on 
the other hand, to encourage a vigilant and enterprising hardi- 
hood, which would lose no advantage for want of quickness in 
perceiving it, dexterity in contriving and putting into action 
means to obtain it, or courage torisk the consequences. Thedis, 


268 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES US’ [LECT. V. 


reverence or fear of some superior power, whose favor 
it was important to obtain, and to whom worship should 
be addressed, a sense of accountability to some invisible 
being, and an apprehension that crime would be follow- 
ed by punishment which no earthly power could evade, 
have been found in more or less distinctness, and in all 
ages and countries, though exhibited in various ways. 
Nor does it at all invalidate this statement, that some 
few tribes of men may be found so sunk in barbarism, 
as to indicate but faint traces of any such law; its char- 
acters, as might be expected, grow more distinct and 
legible, in proportion as man rises in the scale of being. 
Interest, however it may bribe the judgment and per- 
vert the reason, cannot entirely obliterate it; passion 
may -produce a mental intoxication, but when it sub- 
sides, the law resumes its force; the frequent endurance 
of the reproaches of the internal monitor may continual- 
ly lessen the moral susceptibilities; but we presume 
there are few, if any cases, in which the most hardened 
villain does not, at times, perceive these faded charac- 
ters of a long-neglected and often violated law brighten- 
ing into appalling distinctness, proclaiming his baseness 
and announcing his punishment, like that mysterious 
writing traced by an invisible hand on the palace wall, 
which horrified the impious king of Babylon, and at 
once pronounced his guilt and doom. 

And what, it may be asked, are the sanctions which 
enforce this law of nature? From the remarks just 


honor and the punishment which followed detection, still showed 
that, in itself, it was not considered otherwise than as a vice. 


LECT. V.| TO FORM OF THE SUPREME BEING. 269 


made, it is evident that it cannot always be violated with 
impunity. The remorse and selfreproach which to a 
certain extent attend its infractions, and the delight of 
conscious virtue, are by no means to be disregarded. 
These consequences are, at least, a part of those sanc- 
tions by which it is enforced. The exercise of every 
virtue brings with it a degree of satisfaction and pleas- 
ure, that often goes far towards balancing any incon- 
veniences with which it may be attended. The vicious 
not only deprive themselves of this gratification, but 
commonly entail on themselves both remorse -of con- 
science and bodily suffering. But here a question of 
most awful import suggests itself: Are these the only 
sanctions by which this law is guarded? Are these 
visitations of remorse, which in the case of the hardened 
sinner are repeated at more distant intervals as he pro- 
ceeds in crime,—especially when by his vices he tri- 
umphs, obtains wealth, acquires honor,—are these 
lashes of a guilty conscience, which after a time almost 
cease their ineffectual attempts to reclaim him, and 
seem to abandon him without check or restraint to his 
headlong passions, as an incorrigible offender, whose 
doom is sealed; are these the only punishments of the 
wretch who makes thousands miserable, sacrifices with 
ruthless indifference the happiness of all around him to 
his own baleful passions, and lives only like a malig- 
nant fiend, to plague and torment others? Is there no 
truth in those mysterious and awful whisperings, which, 
in all ages, have suggested to the guilty wretch an 
invisible and almighty avenger, and a retribution in a 
future state? Is there no recompense for oppressed 


270 VIEWS WHICH NATURE TEACHES, &c. [LECT. V. 


and suffering virtue, trampled under foot, defamed, and 
scorned, beyond the consciousness of right 1—Is there 
no ground for those hopes and longings after rest and 
compensation in another state, which have so often 
supported virtue in its severest trials? We have 
already shown that he who is at the head of the uni- 
verse is a God of justice, that he has the most true and 
correct perceptions of all that is right and proper, in all 
his creatures, and in all circumstances. He must, then, 
view with approbation or disapprobation the actions 
and conduct of men, according as they agree or dis- 
agree with those perceptions of what is right. It is, 
therefore, an inference which appears justly drawn 
from these premises, that this approbation or disappro- 
bation will be expressed in a manner that shall become 
him as the sovereign Lord of all, and be suitable to the 
purposes of his government. And that, if the peculiar 
circumstances of this state do not admit of this full 
expression, there will be ultimately, im a future life, 
such a retribution as shall inflict on vice and trans- 
gression a condign punishment, and amply indemnify 
all the sufferings of virtue. 

But here nature pauses,—her voice is silent: reason 
is at fault, and can go no further. Revelation must 
now become our teacher: from no other quarter can we 
derive any satisfactory answers to the numerous, the 
deeply interesting, and imexpressibly important ques- 
tions that arise. That such a revelation has been 
given, and that its evidences and its purport are most 
satisfactory, it will be our object at some future time, if 
health and strength permit, to show. 


LECT. V.] OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 271 


Before we conclude this part of the subject, it will be 
expected that we notice some objections which have 
been stated to the views which we have taken. Why, 
(it is sometimes asked,) ifa Being of infinite wisdom be 
the Creator of all, do we see so many creatures which 
are apparently useless, and whose existence seems 
rather like freaks of nature than the results of intelli- 
gence and wisdom? What end can be answered 
worthy of such a Being, by the creation of many of 
the species of birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and insects, 
with which the world swarms? To this we reply, that 
in every one of those species on which man may look 
with contempt, and which atheism may assign to 
chance, there are such inimitable arrangements, and so 
curious an organization as could result only from de- 
signing wisdom; and if there is so much of design in its 
formation, why should we suppose that there is less in the 
position which it occupies in the system at large, or 
that there is no important end answered in its creation ? 
If we cannot see in the wide range of existence the 
important use or beneficial end of each, it does not 
follow that there is no such use or end. An almost 
endless diversity, amidst a general uniformity, seems to 
characterize the works of the Divine Being. And do 
we not perceive, in all the astonishingly diversified 
forms of living creatures, the exhaustless power and 
skill of the great Creator displayed ? And who will have 
the presumption to fix the limits of this variety, or to state 
what creatures should or should not be made, or what is 
the degree of excellence to which it is right for omnip- 
otence to limit itself, in the material forms to which life 


272 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. [LECT. v. 


is given? Wherever life is given, the capability of 
enjoyment is bestowed; being itself may be considered 
asa boon. And is the wisdom of the Creator to be 
impeached, because Divine benevolence distributes its 
bounties in various ways and different degrees? Have 
we a sufficient knowledge of the whole system, with 
the connection and dependencies of all its parts, to pro- 
nounce any portion of it superfluous? In every de- 
partment of nature we see evidence which leads toa 
completely opposite conclusion. ‘The elementary con- 
stituents of this globe and its furniture, the combina- 
tions of which they are susceptible, and the laws which 
regulate their changes; the atmosphere, the water, the 
vapors, the various soils and produce on the surface, 
and the minerals beneath it, all have their appropriate 
use. Besides the important part which vegetable pro- 
ductions perform in the general economy of nature, their 
variety serves many valuable purposes of animal life; 
they furnish the food and medicine, and in a great 
variety of ways contribute to the comfort and enjoy- 
ment of man. It appears, by the researches of natural. 
ists, that there is not a plant that grows, nor a leaf put 
forth by any tree, that is not the means of sustenance to 
some living creature. Among the animal tribes, many 
which might appear at first as useless, seem, after hav- 
ing enjoyed a portion of existence themselves, to be the 
appointed means of subsistence to others. Even the 
infusoria, those minute specks of living matter, which, 
though floating in unnumbered myriads through the 
waters, were for many ages undetected—even these 
serve for food for animals of another class; and many 


LECT: ¥-] OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 273 
of a higher order contribute to sustain the life of man. 
How many parts of the internal economy of the human 
frame were viewed, some ages ago, as perfectly useless, 
simply because their uses were not known. But so 
many have been the discoveries made by modern 
science, of the important functions of what had been 
supposed to be superfluous appendages, that upon the 
detection of any minute part that may have escaped 
former observation, the inquiry is immediately com- 
menced as to its peculiar office, it being assumed almost 
as an axiom that every part must have its use. If, 
therefore, every part of every plant or animal,—if every 
constituent part of this globe, with all its apparatus— 
if every element, every combination, every organ has 
its appropriate use;—if many of those very parts, or 
relations, or laws, which formerly appeared superflu- 
ous, are evidently found, upon a more extended knowl- 
edge, all to have their beneficial and important uses, 
may it not be the same with that very department which 
now furnishes the objection? And is it not a fair 
inference, drawn from a very general analogy, that it 
only requires a more complete acquaintance with the 
various bearings and relations of the whole system of 
nature, to perceive the use of every thing which now 
appears superfluous ? 

But the objection on which the greatest stress is gen- 
erally laid, is the great amount of existing evil. How, 
it is asked, can we suppose that a being of infinite wis- 
dom, and power, and goodness, is the Author of a sys- 
tem in which we see so many evils prevailing, and to 


such an extent? In the very course of nature we per 
18 


274 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. [LECT. J, 


ceive frequent deviations from its beautiful and benefi- 
cial regularity; showers become inundating storms, 
winds become tempests, and those powers of nature 
which, in their ordinary operations, are productive of 
so many benefits, put forth their strength in frightful 
tornadoes or volcanic eruptions. In all animate beings 
we see a large portion of sufferings, and those which 
are inevitable are greatly increased by the wickedness 
of man. Can a world pregnant with so much misery, 
deformed by so much vice, be under the administration 
of an Almighty Power, of infinite wisdom and recti- 
tude? That this is a subject which presents great dif- 
ficulties, we do not attempt to deny; they have occu- 
pied the minds of men in every age, and no solution 
which has been offered can completely remove them. 
Some of these, however, admit of an explanation which 
ought to satisfy every reasonable mind; many of them 
will appear considerably mitigated and lessened, by con- 
siderations which ought to be taken into the account; 
and if there exist any which are quite inexplicable, we 
can at least account for our inability to explain them. 
‘As to those deviations from the ordinary course of 
nature to which reference has been made, as evils in 
the present system, a careful consideration of these 
phenomena will show, that, strictly speaking, they are 
no irregularities, but proceed from, laws which are con- 
stant and uniform; and that their most terrific exhibt- 
tions appear to be, in many cases, and perhaps may be 
in all, necessary to the well-being of the system. That, 
for instance, the law which regulates the phenomena of 
electricity is as accurately obeyed in the lightning's 


LECT. v.] OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 275 


blaze, as in all those silent and unobserved operations 
in which it so eminently subserves the purposes of an- 
imal and vegetable life; and that its wildest commotions 
are eminently beneficial. If those laws, by which 
nature is governed, so interfered with each other as to 
derange its course, and endanger the permanence of the 
system, then the objection might be forcibly urged; but 
while all these apparent irregularities are the result of 
laws the most uniform in their operations, and tend to 
the benefit of the system, there is rather reason to ad- 
mire the wisdom which framed, and which guides the 
‘whole, than rashly to call it in question. That Divine 
wisdom might have established other laws, and gov- 
erned nature in a different manner, we have no reason 
to doubt; but to say that any other laws, and a different 
mode of administering the economy of nature, would 
have been on the whole better, is beyond the province 
of any to determine. 

The liability of all creatures possessing animal life 
to suffering, is not unconnected with results of a most 
beneficial kind, which should not be overlooked. The 
object of pain, appears to be, to give timely notice that 
the system is suffering injury, and not only to warn 
but to compel to instant measures of precaution or re- 
lief, The essential interests of the system must be 
guarded by something more vigilant in its attention, 
and more certain in its operations, than mere reason: 
it is on this principle that the beating of the heart is 
secured by an involuntary power, and that the keen 
sensations of hunger and thirst prompt us to seek the 
necessary supplies. Pain is a sentinel ever on the 


276 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. [LECT. V. 


alert, whose voice is faithfully raised, when the body is 
likely to suffer, and whose language must be heard, 
and cannot be misunderstood. Nor should it be for- 
gotten, that our happiness is often much heightened 
by the occasional inconvenience of pain. The man 
can scarcely enjoy repose who never feels fatigue, nor 
is ease ever so delightful, as when it follows occasional 
suffering. 

But it may be said, that there is much more, evil 
than can be accounted for, in this way, than can be 
necessary as a precaution against danger, or prove 
beneficial, by its occasional presence, in its influence 
on our actual enjoyment. This is admitted: the 
amount of bodily suffering and mental anguish, in the 
present state, is, indeed, great. But let it be agam con- 
sidered, that this is a world of sin and vice; and ought 
not such a state of things to be marked by interrup- 
tions of happiness, and visitations of evil? Admit 
that the highest order of the earth’s inhabitants, that its 
only rational beings have departed from rectitude, that 
there has been a universal defection in their obedience 
to the great Creator, and less surprise will be felt that 
so much misery should follow so much vice. Should 
a world abounding with moral evil be a paradise of 
sweets? Should not a world of sin be a world of suf 
fering? That exclusive enjoyment should reign amidst 
universal transgression, would not, as far as we can 
perceive, become the character of the mghteous Gov- 
ernor of the universe; it would be like a bounty on 
crime. 

But still the question is pressed on us, why was evil, 


LECT. V.] OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 2h 


either moral or natural, permitted to enter into the fair 
creation, to mar its beauties, and to spoil its happiness ? 
Could not an intelligent Creator, possessing boundless 
wisdom and power, have prevented this? And if per- 
fect rectitude is an attribute of his nature, how could he 
permit it? That evil has entered, and established itself 
in the world, and that there exists an infinitely wise, 
and powerful, and righteous Governor of the universe, 
are propositions which atheism affirms to be contradic- 
tory; and since the entrance of evil is an undeniable 
fact, the other proposition, it affirms, cannot be true. 
The state of the argument then, as far as this objection 
goes, is this:—on the one hand, we have proofs with- 
out number, and of the strongest kind, that a being ex- 
ists, of unbounded power, supreme intelligence, and 
transcendent goodness, to whom, as the great Creator, 
we trace the existence of all things;—against this, is 
placed the contradiction, be it real or supposed, between 
the prevalence of so much evil and the existence of 
such a being. It must be remembered at the same time, 
that the evil on which the objection is grounded, is not 
pure, unmixed, and universal, but commingled with a 
large amount of good. Now, whether of the two is 
the greater difficulty,—to resist the evidence which 
meets us every where, which is so varied in its kind, so 
numerous in its instances, and yet in each separate and 
individual case, so strong and unanswerable; or, to 
consider the contradiction, like many others of less im- 
portance with which we frequently meet, as only appa- 
rent? On the one hand, we have a truth pressed on 
us with a strength of evidence which has produced 


278 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. [LECT. Vv. 


conviction in the minds of the wisest, and greatest, and 
best of men in every age; on the other, a difficulty 
which we cannot understand. When such a case oc- 
curs in common life, we never yield up the evident 
truth on account of the difficulty, but conclude that 
there are some unknown circumstances or views of the 
case which create the difficulty, and which, were we in 
possession of them, would remove it. I appeal, then, 
to the reason and the candor of my auditory, of that 
part of it especially, who, while following in the ranks 
of scepticism, profess to be inquirers after truth, wheth- 
er, with such preponderating evidence as that which 
we have produced, the conclusion is not fair and ration- 
al, and unspeakably more satisfactory than its opposite, 
that the alleged contradiction is only apparent; and 
that our incapability of solving the problem, does not 
prove that it is incapable of solution? 

The following considerations we candidly submit as 
deserving attention; and feel assured, that if they do 
not throw all the light which may be desired, on a sub- 
ject so mysterious, they are at least sufficient to forbid 
the presumption of a rash and hasty conclusion, on the 
ground of a difficulty, in the face of so much evidence. 

Is not a degree of imperfection necessarily attendant 
on a created being? He is not, cannot be absolutely 
as the Creator. The great First Cause is the only 
necessary, self-existent, and immutable Being, who can- 
not by necessity be otherwise than he is; that is, it 
would involve a contradiction to suppose it. No cre- 
ated being can be what he is necessarily; he cannot, 
therefore, have necessary immutability. He is not, in 


LECT. V.] OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 279 


his own nature, free from the possibility of change: it 
is possible that he may at another time be different from 
what he now is. He cannot, then, have absolute per- 
fection,—he cannot be, by necessity of nature, free from 
evil. What is possible, may happen without acontradic- 
tion. Man, therefore, however high in the scale of 
being, and though without any original bias to evil, 
might deteriorate, unless the Creator should prevent it 
by an act of his own power. — 

Is not a liability to evil, inseparable from liberty of 
choice, and necessary to free agency? If man had 
been created with an impossibility of falling from that 
state, where could there have been any test of his obe- 
dience 1—what virtue would there have been in his 
fidelity ? 

Does not a partial evil sometimes produce a general 
good, and an amount of good so great as to render that 
which was in itself, and separately considered, an evil, 
relatively and on the whole a good? Wearisome labor, 
fatiguing application of mind, self-denial, are in them- 
selves evils; yet how much happiness results from 
them and depends on them? Cannot we recollect 
many incidents of our lives, that we felt for the time 
being as evils, and which, independent of their con- 
sequences, were so,—and yet, we now see that so much 
of our subsequent happiness depended on them, that we 
are thankful for their occurrence. Misfortune in busi- 
ness, sometimes proves the foundation of future success. 
And even a certain amount of folly and misconduct, 
though in itself a serious evil, and against which it is 
the duty of every one cautiously to guard, may yet be 


280 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. [LECT. V. 


the means, and often has been the means, of teaching 
such lessons and awaking such feelings and sentiments 
in the mind, as have subsequently given the strongest 
power to the virtuous principle, and led to the most 
confirmed habits of rectitude. Every person of obser- 
vation must have seen instances, in which the penitent 
recollections of past misconduct have so wrought on 
the mind, as to produce characters the most eminent 
and distinguished in the ranks of moral excellence, 
who have far outstripped others, who, from their youth, 
have kept on the even tenor of their way, with a medi- 
ocrity of virtue. 

Does not a state in which good and evil are so 
blended as to afford opportunity for the full develop- 
ment of character, and the exercise of every virtue, 
accord with our idea of a probationary state, the inequal- 
ities of which shall be fully adjusted by the rewards 
and punishments of a future life? Do not the suffer- 
ings, the trials, and the temptations of such a state, 
while they afford a test of character, call forth the live- 
liest exercise of oompassion, benevolence, generosity, 
and give an opportunity of showing, in a high degree, 
the love of truth, fidelity, integrity, and every grace 
that can adorn the human character? And does not 
such a state, viewed in connection with the retributions 
of a life to come, seem to afford the best opportunity for 
developing all the principles of moral government? 

That may appear to be wrong with a certain measure 
of knowledge, which a more comprehensive view will 
show to be right. The child thinks that the restraints 
placed on his inclinations, and the discipline to which 


LECT. V.] OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 281 


he is subject, are all against him: when his mind ex- 
pands, and he is able to take a more enlarged view, he 
perceives the propriety of the whole. A person with 
very little knowledge of the laws of nature, will not 
believe that the sun is larger than the earth; and that 
the latter is in constant and rapid motion round the 
former. To affirm that the sun is more than a million 
times larger than this globe, and that it does not move 
round from east to west, are to him most palpable con- 
tradictions; and yet a higher degree of knowledge ex- 
plains the mystery, and sets all right. So, with our 
present limited knowledge and means of judging, there 
may be much that may appear to be wrong and contra- 
dictory in the present system; whereas, if we were 
capable of taking a more enlarged survey of all its 
connections and results, and its bearings on God and 
man, on this and on other worlds, on time and on eter- 
nity, where we now stand astonished at the mystery, 
we might admire the wisdom, and exclaim, “righteous 
and true art thou in all thy ways, O King of saints.” 
And I would ask, lastly, whether it is at all likely 
that we should be able, with our limited powers, to 
comprehend the plans of an Infinite Mind? Can we 
expect a child to enter into all the views and projects of 
his father, or to comprehend all the financial details, 
the’ political relations, and the various interests which 
enter into the plans of a statesman who guides the 
affairs of an empire? Place before a school-boy, just 
acquiring the rudiments of arithmetic, the profound and 
elaborate analysis of Laplace to determine the secular 
inequalities of the planets :—here are words and letters 


282 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. [LECT. Vv: 


which, as insulated portions, he may understand, and 
perhaps, by dint of application, he might here and 
there discover a simple operation of multiplication or 
division, and think he had done wonders; but these 
are blended with a number of mystic characters and 
unknown operations, of the nature and connections of 
which he has not the slightest perception; and, with- 
out any idea of the surpassing ingenuity and compass 
of mind which the process exhibits, and the important 
results to which it leads, it is all confused and mysteri- 
ous to his apprehension; he has no experience to guide 
him, no means of judging of the whole: as far as his 
perceptions go, there is no order, no proposed end, and 
it is only by the most implicit reliance on the superior 
capabilities of the mathematician, that he believes that 
method pervades the whole, and that an important 
result is obtained. Now, there is an immeasurably 
greater disparity between the highest powers of human 
intellect and the Infinite Mind, than between the under- 
standing of a child and the most exhalted genius that 
ever adorned human nature.’ Is it likely, then, that we 
should be competent to the task of explaining every 
part of the Divine administrations1—Is it surprising 
that we should find what appear to us as contradictions 
which we cannot reconcile, and difficulties which: we 
cannot solve 1—Are we in a capacity to determine what, 
on the whole, and in the great result is right, when we 
see but a small part of what is yet incomplete? If we 
cannot, therefore, explain the difficulty, we can account 
for the existence of what may confound our judgment 
and nonplus our understanding, by the obvious impos- 


LECT. V.] OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 283 


sibility that a limited mind should comprehend the 
plans and workings of an Infinite Intellect, which em- 
braces in one mighty whole, all creatures, all worlds, 
all time, and all eternity. 

Let me now, in closing, remind my auditory how 
completely coincident, as far as it goes, is the knowl- 
edge which nature gives, with that which is imparted 
by divine revelation. It is delightful to observe the 
accordance of the works of God with the word of God. 
Nature, indeed, speaks by signs, which it requires 
the exercise of reason rightly to interpret; revelation 
speaks by words, and pronounces with authority its 
decisions on sacred and moral truth. I need not refer 
you who are in the habit of reading the scriptures, to 
the expressive language in which the eternity, the self- 
existence, and independence, the immutability, the infi- 
nity, the spirituality, and the unity of the Divine Being 
are so often presented to our mind;—in which the 
inspired writers descant on the wisdom and the power, 
the justice and the mercy, of him who is the Creator 
and Governor of all things, the benefactor and the 
judge of rational beings. It was the contemplation of 
these divine attributes and perfections, which filled the 
minds of the sacred writers with solemn awe and un- 
speakable delight; which filled their hearts with holy 
confidence, and their tongues with praise; which gave 
them assurance of safety, whatever dangers might 
threaten them or calamities befall them; which gave 
them peace amidst all the storms of life, enabled them 
to rejoice in the prospect of death, and filled their bosoms 
with the joyful anticipation of having a fuller and a 


284 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. [LECT. Vv. 


brighter vision of his uncreated glories in the world of 
eternity. 

Let me congratulate you, my Christian brethren, that 
in the sacred scriptures you have the deficiencies of 
nature’s light supplied, and all the information imparted 
which is necessary to your present peace or future wel- 
fare; that where nature and reason stop in the inform- 
ation which they are able to impart, you have “a more 
sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye 
take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.” 
How unspeakably important are the inquiries which 
you here find answered: “If a man die, shall he live 
again?” How can man be just with God?’ Will 
the great Governor of the universe pardon transgres- 
sion? How, and on what terms, and to what extent 
may pardon be obtained? What will be the conse- 
quences of dying unforgiven, and what the result of 
having obtained mercy? What will be the nature of 
the retributions of a future state, and when will they 
be finally awarded? These, and many inquiries of 
an interest, incomparably greater than all which relates 
to human science, or the concerns of this transitory 
life, are answered with a clearness and precision, which 
release us from the dreadful suspense of uncertainty on 
topics so momentous, and afford us “a light to our feet, 
and a lamp to our path,” to guide us to the regions of 
endless day. 

How well adapted to impress the mind with rever- 
ence, and to inspire it with sacred pleasure, is the con- 
sideration of the perfections and government of such a 
Being. So great, and yet so good, so comprehensive 


LECT. V.] OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 285 


in his plans, and so minute in his care; whose provi- 
dence extends to worlds and atoms; who bids the 
planets roll, marks the flight of a “ sparrow,” and num- 
bers even “the hairs of our head.” ‘ Clouds and dark- 
ness” may for a time veil his designs in mystery, but 
“righteousness and judgment are the basis. of his 
throne.” We may, in viewing the wonders of his 
providence and grace, have occasion to exclaim, “O the 
depths both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God; 
how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways 
past finding out.” But we still add, “shall not the 
Judge of all the earth do right?’ And O, how consola- 
tory is the thought, that, insignificant and unworthy as 
we are, he, the great Maker and Governor of the uni- 
verse, “taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those 
that hope in his mercy.” 


LECTURE VI. 


THE ATHEISTIC PHILOSOPHY COMPARED, IN 
SOME .OF ITS PRINCIPAL FEATURES, WITH 
CHRISTIANITY. 


COL. 11. 8.—‘“ BEWARE LEST ANY MAN SPOIL YOU, 
THROUGH PHILOSOPHY AND VAIN DECEIT.’ * 


PwiLosopuy was originally a term of very modest 
import, indicating only the love or study of wisdom: 
those who were engaged in the pursuit of truth and 
knowledge were thus called philosophers. It soon, 
however, assumed a more dignified meaning, and indi- 
cated that more refined and accurate knowledge of 


* “Sue tng prdocopras xo xevyg asratys.” A Hebraism proba- 
bly, for “through a philosophy which is vain and deceitful,’”— 
or “through a vain and deceitful philosophy.” Macknight, 
“an empty and deceitful philosophy.” 


LECT. V1.] ATHEISM COMPARED, &c. 287 


nature and morals, which the learned few professed _ to 
have obtained. ‘The tenets of philosophy, as main- 
tained by different persons, were not, however, uniform ; 
almost every distinguished teacher had his own system, 
or made innovations on those systems which had pre- 
ceded him. — It is unnecessary to enumerate the various - 
and jarring sects that arose, each advocating some pecu- 
liarity which was opposed by others. In these various 
systems there generally were some facts of science and 
some just reasoning, intermixed with a very large por- 
tion of sophistry and conjecture; and some of them 
were wild and extravagant almost beyond credibility. 
Their philosophical tenets were not confined to the ob- 
served phenomena of matter or mind, but their specula- 
tions related also to the author of nature, the govern- 
ment of the world, the grounds and obligations of vir- 
tue, and the means of happiness. The Jews, though 
not a people remarkable for their literature, yet had 
their philosophical sects, or what much resembled these 
sects in other parts of the world, which had their doc- 
tors, and their schools, and their followers, and their 
distinct peculiarities, both in opinion and practice. 
Whether the apostle here alludes to any system in par- 
ticular, among either the Greeks or Jews, is not, per- 
haps, certain; his principal object being to caution those 
to whom he wrote, against any of those fallacies, which, 
though going under the dignified name of philosophy, 
were nothing better than “vain deceit.” 

How much that has been obtruded on the world, 
under the name of “philosophy,” has been in every 
sense “empty” and profitless? How many a system, 


288 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


that once had its admirers and supporters; lives now 
only in the pages of history, as a record of the folly 
and credulity of mankind! And how often still, are 
opinions of the most absurd and incongruous nature, 
linked together into systems and theories, in which 
conjecture takes the place of fact, sophistry is substi- 
tuted for reason, and bold assertion supplies the lack of 
argument! However such opinions may impose on 
the unwary, they are and must be nothing but “a vain 
philosophy.” Instead of substantial truth, a shadow is 
grasped; instead of any solid advantage, an imaginary 
good is possessed, but real injury sustained. 

A “philosophy ” which is “ vain,” that is alike des- 
titute of truth and profit, may yet be, on many accounts, 
as “deceitful” as it is “vain.” Error never appears 
without disguise when it solicitsa reception; it always 
wears the garb and bears the name of truth. Few, 
indeed, are the erroneous systems in which there is not 
some admixture of truth; and it is to this very circum- 
stance that they are frequently indebted for acceptance. 
The most unwholesome error may be so ingrafted on 
the stock of truth, as to appear actually to spring from 
it; mistakes ofa most pernicious kind may, by prac- 
tised ingenuity, be so dexterously inwrought with ac- 
knowledged truths, as, like a finished piece of mosaic, 
to render a very close inspection and a nice discrimina- 
tion necessary to distinguish the several parts, or to see 
where one ends and the other begins; and thus fre- 
quently the whole system, with all its essential and 
mischievous errors, is received, on account of some few 
truths which cannot be. denied. A “ vain philosophy” 


<5. 
+* 7 
Se 
o" 


= 
- 


LECT. VI] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 289 


may also impose on many by a few great names which 
it may rank among its patrons. The aberrations of 


the human mind are truly astonishing, and especially 


among men distinguished for their learning and talents. 
It is a fact, however it may be explained, that theories 
so visionary, and opinions so wild and fanciful as would 
discredit a man of common understanding, have some- 
times been originated or maintained by men of great 
general superiority. Great names, in science or lit- 
erature, always have their influence; and a few of 
these will sometimes give currency to great absurdities, 
and render a “ vain philosophy ” imposing and “ deceit- 
ful.” A system destitute of truth may, also, have much 
to flatter our pride, and may thus tend to beguile the 
mind. If it teaches its votaries to consider themselves 
as the only free and independent thinkers, while others 
are the slaves of unreasonable prejudices, and the dupes 
of an hereditary and widely-spread superstition,—that 
they alone assert the supremacy of reason, while others 
are crouching before a despotic dictation,—that they 
are the select few, who have the courage to examine 
what others take upon trust, and to ridicule what others 
treat with veneration and awe,—it will become peculi- 
arly captivating to bold and speculative minds, to whom 
singularity itself is a proud distinction, and especially 
to the ardent and inexperienced youth. If, in addition 
to this, a “vain philosophy” should tend to quiet all 
the remonstrances of conscience, by denying every 
thing of which, in the hour of retirement and stillness, 
it reminds us; by reducing to a fiction of the imagina- 


tion all the solemnities involved in the consideration of 
19 ; 


290 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


an invisible judge, and a future state of retribution; if 
by thus removing all the restraints which others feel, it 
allows a man, without fear, to “walk in the ways of his 
own heart, and according to the sight of his eyes;” then, it 
is evident, sucha philosophy will have such recommen- 
dations to any one who feels these restraints irksome and 
annoying, who would enjoy the pleasure of sin without 
its sting, and gratify his inclinations without remorse, 
as will in all probability blind the understanding to its 
defects, bespeak the feelings of the heart in its favor, 
and thus secure an acceptance by its “ vain deceit.” 
Now, is it not obvious that the boasted philosophy 
of infidelity is of this kind;—that these are some of 
the principal qualities which render it dangerous? Be- 
cause, therefore, it comes with the fair promise of lead- 
ing us into truth, and ingeniously blends its pernicious 
errors with many things which are acknowledged true, 
claims a few great names in literature or science as its 
patrons or disciples, and flatters the pride of man, while 
it aims to destroy the power of conscience, it is neces- 
sary that all who come within reach of its seductions, 
either by the companions with whom they associate, or 
the books which are thrown in their way, should be 
warned to “beware, lest any man spoil * them, through 
philosophy and vain deceit.” And lamentable, indeed, 
would be the result of being thus spoiled. Beguiled, 
and plundered of the highest sanctions of morality, the 


* oviaywyew. Properly, to make a spoil of any, as persons 
vanquished in war, whose property is seized and whose persons 
are enslaved by the victor. And metaphorically, as here, to de- 
prive.a person of any thing by force or fraud. 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 291 


most powerful incentives to virtue, the sweetest consola- 
tions and the brightest hopes,—what would there re. 
main to man but a slight and short-lived superiority to 
the beasts that perish ? 

We have already endeavored to show that the athe- 
istic philosophy is “empty” and “vain,” as far as it 
makes any pretensions to truth. In order to this, we 
have adduced some strong presumptions that lie against 
it, which have never been satisfactorily removed; we 
have examined the various hypotheses on which it 
rests, and “ found” them “ wanting ;” we have produced 
evidence which condemns it, so various and conclusive 
as not, we conceive, to admit of contradiction; we have 
given the objections which it raises, a fair hearing, and 
in reply have, we believe, proved them to be ground- 
less. Our principal object now. is, to show that it is as 
destitute of any real advantage as it is of truth, that it 
is as worthless as it is false, that its assumed superiori- 
ty is all a fable;'and that, therefore, whatever may be 
its plausibilities, it is in the worst sense “ deceitful,” em- 
phatically “a vain deceit.” We shall endeavor to 
show, that were we to grant the truth of its dogmas, it 
would still be worse than useless,—that, were we to 
leave its supporters in undisturbed possession of their 
territory, it is only a land barren and dreary, and dark 
as “the shadow of death,’—that the beauty which they 
admire, is only a ghastly phantom,—that the object 
of their adoration cannot, after all the incense which 
they offer, give one cheering smile to the human race— 
that their splendid monument of false reasoning and 
perverted science, is but a decorated tomb, which, be- 


292 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


neath all its sculpture and its gilding, and its panegyri- 
cal inscription, contains only silence, and gloom, and 
putrefaction. 

As things and opinions are frequently seen to advan- 
tage by contrast, we intend to exhibit some of the prin- 
cipal points in which the atheistic philosophy has glo- 
ried, in comparison with those very points in that sys- 
tem which atheism particularly condemns and abhors, 
For it is remarkable, that all the fantastic fooleries, all 
the extravagant absurdities, and all the barbarous rites 
of ancient or modern paganism, receive a treatment 
mild, and polite, and benign, compared with that with 
which Christianity meets, in the writings of many of 
the patrons of infidelity. Whatever crimes and follies 
other systems may be charged with, they cry out, like 
the Jews of old, ‘Release unto us Barabbas,—but as 
for this man, crucify him, crucify him.” 

But let the comparison be fairly made,—let “abeare 
he judged according to the descriptions and statements 
of its own advocates; and let an estimate be formed 
of Christianity,—not as it is disgraced in the lives of 
many who unworthily assume the Christian name, nor, 
as it is, when secularized and corrupted, and employed 
for purposes foreign to its own pure nature and heaven- 
ly origin, but as it appears in its own writings, as it is 
portrayed in the sacred scriptures. 

Let me not, however, be mistaken. Far be it from 
me to concede or intimate that there is any thing hke 
philosophy in the minds of a great many who embrace 
infidelity in its various gradations. There is reason to 
fear, there are too many, in whose minds there is no- 


LECT. vI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 293 


thing systematic but their aversion to Christianity, as a 
scheme which demands subjection to a holy Being, and 
which presents objects of terror to a sinful heart. And 
with too many of the writers on this subject, there is 
any thing but philosophical reasoning; they deal prin- 
cipally in extravagant vituperation, bold and unwarrant- 
able assertion, and a determination to identify religion 
with all the abuses chargeable on hypocritical, or igno- 
rant, or bigoted and wicked professors of it. To dig- 
nify such trash as frequently issues from the infidel 
press with the name of philosophy, even of a “ vain 
philosophy,” would be a miserable abuse of terms. 
But there are some, who, to considerable talents and 
science, add great ingenuity, and who have given to 
atheism the shape and appearance of a system, and 
have endeavored to support it by arguments drawn 
from various branches of philosophy. It is to such 
writings as these which I refer, which I know are cir- 
culated in this town and neighborhood, and to the opin- 
ions of those who read and reason on them, however 
erroneously, when I speak of the philosophy of atheism. 

Before we proceed to the points of comparison on 
which I shall principally dwell, there are a few partic- 
ulars, in which the two systems may be compared, 
which deserve some attention. 

There is an important difference in the character and 
aspect under which these systems respectively present 
themselves to our notice. Atheism is professedly a 
philosophical system; Christianity, a divine communi- 
cation. Consequently, the systems take very different 
ground, and advance claims of a very different nature. 


294 ATHEISM COMPARED, [LECT. VI. 


Atheism, so far as it makes any pretensions to a philo- 
sophical system, stands on just the same grounds as 
the opinions maintained by the ancient Academics or 
Peripatetics, the Epicureans or the Stoics, each of 
which had its advocates and its enemies, its period of 
triumph and decay. Whatever credit may be attached 
to auy such system, on account of the plausibility of its 
arguments, the ingenuity with which it is constructed, 
or the great names which it enrols among its support- 
ers, the highest ground on which it can challenge our 
belief; and claim our acquiescence, is, that it is a well- 
constructed and well-reasoned system of human. opin- 
ions, with a probability of their truth. Beyond this, no 
system of this kind can go; certainty is out of the 
question. Christianity, on the other hand, stands for- 
ward in a character far different, and with claims of 
another kind. It professes to be not the result of hu- 
man speculation, “but the wisdom which is from 
above ;” not a plausible theory, but certain truth. Admit 
all that atheism requires, and it is still but the offspring 
of human reason; admit the truth of Christianity, and 
its origin is the Father of lights;—the Fountain of 
eternal truth. 

The one, as founded only on human reasonings, is 
principally a question of opinion, the other, as _profes- 
sing to be a communication from heaven, is a question 
of fact. Atheism has no facts which belong peculiarly 
to its system, on which it can ground its opinions: we 
have precisely the same facts, and, with what we cannot 
but consider overwhelming evidence, draw conclusions 
from them destructive of the atheistic scheme. But 


LECT. V1.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 295 


Christianity is entirely built on facts peculiar to itself, 
which, unless they can be shown to be historically 
false, ensure, with a certainty which cannot be doubted, 
the truth of all its communications. Concede every 
thing to the atheistic scheme which its advocates can, 
with any show of reason, demand, and still there is 
room for doubt to operate, and uncertainty to distract 
the mind: there may be a flaw in the reasoning, some 
views of the subject may be omitted which would en- 
tirely alter the case, the premises may be mere conjec- 
ture, or the conclusions may not be justified. Grant to 
Christianity its facts, and doubt is for ever excluded. 
Here are books come down to us, and which for many 
ages have existed, not only in the principal languages 
of Europe, but in several of the oriental tongues, which 
were professedly written by persons whose names they 
bear, and published at or very near the time when the 
events which they relate occurred, and when their 
statements, if false, might have been contradicted: these 
statements, also, are interwoven with many historical 
events and local peculiarities. Now, whether such 
writings did first appear, about the time to which they 
refer, and whether those particulars of general history 
and local references be accordant with truth; or, whether 
any age, before or since, can be assigned to these books, 
and their historical allusions shown to be fictions,—are 
questions of fact, on which the whole system hinges, 
and which, surely, we have sufficient historical evidence 
of the past to determine. And, further, it is affirm- 
ed in these writings, published about the time and in 
the places where the events narrated are said to have 


296 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


occurred, that during the reign of a certain emperor at 
Rome, and under the government of a Roman mag's- 
trate, there appeared in the land of Judea, a most extra- 
ordinary person, who professed to be well acquainted 
with all those great and mysterious topics of inquiry 
that had long engaged the attention of the wisest of 
men to little purpose, respecting the nature, and char- 
acter, and will of the great Creator, the prospects and 
destiny of man with reference to a future life, the means 
of man’s highest happiness, and the rule of his duty; 
professing, moreover, to be a messenger from the most 
high God, sent to instruct and bless his rational crea- 
tures: and it is also related in these documents of his- 
tory, that prophecies which had for many ages been 
contained in books still extant, were most remarkably 
fulfilled in the circumstances, character, life, and death 
of this sacred person; that in proof of his mission he 
wrought many surprising miracles, which nothing but 
a divine power could effect; and that, after having been 
unjustly sentenced to a cruel death, he rose from the 
dead, according to his own predictions, notwithstanding 
every precaution taken by his enemies, and after having 
been seen by many of his disciples repeatedly, he as- 
cended into heaven ; and that, according ‘to a previous 
promise, he bestowed on his followers most extraordi- 
nary powers: and moreover, these writings testify that 
a rite was instituted as initiatory into the community of 
his followers, which rite we know continues to this day ; 
that another rite was appointed by himself in remem- 
brance of his death, and a certain day in the week ob- 
served by his disciples commemorative of his resurrec- 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 297 


tion; all which observances are still maintained in 
every part of the Christian world. Now, these, with 
many others which might be mentioned, are facts which 
can be submitted to the test of historical evidence, and 
if they can be substantiated—which we believe they 
can, in the most complete and satisfactory manner—then 
the truths which Christianity announces, admit neither 
of reasoning nor of appeal,—our only business being to 
ascertain what they are; then the precepts of duty 
which it delivers, call not for discussion, but implicit 
obedience: on all the momentous inquiries which inter- 
est man, there is no longer any room to doubt, but all is 
certainty. On those great points whose decision is so 
necessary to our happiness, atheism may profess to give 
plausible reasons, but still leaves room for the most 
tormenting doubts; Christianity, by its authoritative 
decisions, resolves these very doubts, and, by the as- 
sured certainty which it thus affords, releases the mind 
from torturing apprehensions. 

From the very different grounds on which these sys- 
tems professedly stand, and the claims which they res- 
pectively make, the consequences of receiving or reject- 
ing either are widely different. Admitting atheism to 
be true; if we embrace it, what do we gain?. If we 
stubbornly, and through prejudice reject it, what do we 
lose? If Christianity be true, a reception of its state- 
ments, and an acquiescence with its claims, bring un- 
speakable blessings for time and for eternity; while a 
wilful and perverse rejection of it incurs a risk the most 
tremendous that can be imagined. 

Another remarkable contrast between the two systems 


298 ATHEISM COMPARED | [LECT. VI. 


is, that one is a system of belief, the other of disbelief; 
the one is remarkable for its positive or affirmative 
character, the other for its negative quality. Atheism 
discloses no secrets, unfolds no mystery, teaches no 
truth. It tells us, indeed, to look at nature and observe 
her laws; but this the Christian does quite as much as 
the atheist, and the laws and operations of nature have 
been principally discovered, explained, and illustrated 
by Christian philosophers, and on Christian principles. 
But what has atheism to teach but mere negations?— 
that there is no First Cause, no Creator, no intention 
in all the beautiful and beneficial arrangements of na- 
ture; that there is no such thing as mind or spirit in 
the universe; no God, no angel, no hereafter for man, 
no future judgment, no heaven or hell, no rewards for 
virtue or punishments for vice beyond this life. Its 
object is, in fact, to teach men to disbelieve what all 
ages have believed, and to confine within the smallest 
compass, all the objects of truth and knowledge. Chris- 
tianity, on the other hand, admits all the truths of na- 
ture and of sound philosophy, and encourages, by very 
peculiar and interesting considerations, our examination 
of all the objects of creating power; and, in addition to 
this, presents us with truths which only revelation could 
disclose, and those of the most important kind, which 
affect our welfare both in this world and in that which 
is to come. It answers questions which philosophy 
could never solve; it teaches truths which reason could 
never reach. It shows us how man’s nature can be 
purified, and exalted, and raised to the highest dig- 
nity; how the simplest mind that is teachable may be 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 299 


made wise unto salvation; how the transgressor may 
be pardoned; how the weakest may be strengthened to 
sustain every difficulty, and to vanquish every enemy ; 
how comfort may spring from afflictions, the deepest 
sorrows be turned into joy, and the most distressing 
evils be converted into means of the highest good. It 
is the work of Christianity to resolve doubts,—-of athe- 
ism to create them; Christianity explains much ; atheism 
declares every thing to be inexplicable. Christianity 
offers a “light to our feet and a lamp to our path,” to 
guide us through this world to a better; atheism bids 
us grope our way in darkness to the silent tomb, till an 
eternal night extends its shadows over us. 

Atheism does not, with all its boasted philosophy, 
meet the wants of man, nor come home to the feelings 
of human nature.. Christianity does, and that in the 
most effectual manner. How often does the heart of 
man feel the want of some superior power on which to 
lean for help and guidance? There are seasons when, 
sensible of the insufficiency of all earthly aid, it sighs 
involuntarily and deeply for support which no human 
being can render. How frequently does the mind, in 
its calm and thoughtful moments, look with the eager- 
ness of inquisitive desire on the vast regions of truth, 
of which it can, by its own unaided powers, know so 
little, and pant to know more of the past, and the pres- 
ent, and the future, of things visible and invisible, the 
existence of which is either perceived or imagined? 
There is something within, that indicates responsibility, 
in a manner which it is difficult to resist, and which 
feels that a hope of forgiveness is necessary to peace of 


300 ATILEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


mind. There are also internal suggestions about a 
mysterious futurity, and an irrepressible longing after 
immortality. There is in the mind of man, that which 
earth cannot satisfy, with all the good of every kind 
which it has to bestow; so that often in the midst of 
affluence, and honor, and friendship, and domestic en- 
dearments, a something is felt still void, and still unsat- 
isfied, At the very time when the heart thrills with 
pleasurable emotion, while contemplating the scenes of 
nature, how often is there mixing with this pleasure, a 
strange feeling of desire and longing afler something 
more beautiful, and vast and glorious still? In the 
midst of every thing good, and great, and delightful, in 
civil or in social life, in nature or in art, whatever rela- 
tion man may sustain, in whatever situation he is 
placed, there is an inward pining, a secret longing after 
an undefined something greater, and better, and lovelier, 
than all that is seen or enjoyed in this world. These 
sentiments of the heart, these peculiar susceptibilities of 
our nature, may be fainter and feebler as man sinks in 
the scale of rationality ; they may be disregarded amidst 
the hurry of business and the round of dissipation, but 
they are seldom, if ever, entirely obliterated; they are 
found in every age, in every climate, in every rank and 
degree of society, as a part of our mental constitution ; 
and in proportion as man rises in the scale of being, 
and as he retires from the cares, and strife, and tumult 
of life into himself, he is conscious of feelings of this 
kind. Now, Christianity completely meets the wants 
and feelings of man’s nature; it has help for his weak- 
ness, truth for his curiosity, and imperishable good for 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. Sol 


his desires of happiness; it can calm the conscience, 
silence the fears, and guide the hopes to a blissful futu- 
rity; it has objects.on which the mind can fix, and, in 
the contemplation of them, feel all its inward workings 
and indistinct imaginings respecting the great and the 
beautiful, the awful and the lovely, satisfied, overwhelm- 
ed, and delighted. But, where is this adaptation to 
man’s nature to be found in atheism? What has it for 
any such feelings and sentiments, but a doubt or a re- 
buke? Man must, under the discipline of a determined 
scepticism, learn to silence this inward monitor, to re- 
press these feelings of responsibility, to contradict and 
deny this capability which is felt for superior happiness, 
to subdue these cravings after immortality and bound- 
less good, before he can cordially embrace the tenets of 
atheism or feel satisfied with its unnatural philosophy. 
In other words, he must, we conceive, do violence to 
his nature, in order to become thoroughly an atheist. 
Whatever benefits the atheistic philosophy proposes 
to confer, are, according to the showing of its own ad- 
vocates, confined to a few; Christianity is adapted to 
all. There are two reasons for this: one is that which 
we have just mentioned, its contrariety to man’s nature ; 
and the other is, that the sophistry of a system so oppo- 
site to the general sense of mankind in every age, must 
necessarily be confined to a few speculative minds. A 
practical atheism which renounces all belief ina Divine 
Being, which scoffs at what others revere, and despises 
those sanctions which others hold sacred, may, indeed, 
be found connected with the most brutal stupidity ; but 
I am now speaking of its philosophy,—of its specula- 


id 
302 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


tions arranged into a system, in order to account for the 
phenomena of the universe, without admitting an intel- 
ligent Creator, and to secure, in some measure at least, 
such as may hold society together, the interests of 
morality, while rejecting a moral Governor, the respon- 
sibility of man to any higher power, and the retribu- 
tions of a future state. A large portion of society con- 
sists of the working classes, many of them men of good 
common sense, but all of them of limited education, and 
who, generally, must be incapable of entering into all 
the refined sophistry, and ingenious subtleties by which 
the philosophy of atheism is supported. So that, were 
we to listen to all the panegyrics of the atheist on his 
own system, we should still feel that its proposed ben- 
efits and blessings must be very limited in their extent. 
“ Atheism,” says one of its most strenuous advocates, 
“requires intense study, demands extensive knowledge.’””* 
“ Atheism, then, as well as philosophy, like all pro- 
found abstruse sciences, is not calculated for the vulgar, 
neither is it suitable to the great mass of mankind.” + 
“Ttis not, then, for the multitude, that a philosopher 
should propose to himself, either to write or to medi- 
tate: the Code of Nature, or the principles of atheism, 
as the priest calls it, are not, as we have shown, even 
calculated for the meridian of a great number of per- 
sons.” { That it should ever become general is, accord- 
ing to this author, what “appears utterly impossible,”’§ 
therefore, he asserts, “this is not the end we can pro- 
pose to ourselves.” § How completely is the contrast 


* System of Nature.—Vol. IT. p. 597. t p. 598, t p. 599. 
§ p. 596. 


‘fe 
LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 303 


to this which Christianity exhibits? It was announced 
as a distinguishing feature in thenew economy, when 
the great founder of Christianity first established his 
spiritual kingdom in this world, that “to the poor the 
gospel is preached.” To comprehend as much of 
Christianity as is necessary to a participation in all its 
blessings, does noé require “intense study, and demand 
extensive knowledge.” It is not as a “profound and 
abstruse science,” that it benefits its recipients ; but, it is 
by receiving “the kingdom of Godasa _ little child,” that 
it becomes “ the power of God unto salvation, to every one 
that believeth.” While it gives ample scope to a mind 
capable of ranging through a wide field of truth, and, 
by its sublime objects, affords exercise to the largest 
powers, the cordial belief of a few facts is all that is 
necessary to bring its divine comfort into the mind; a 
few simple rules or principles, with an upright inten- 
tion, are sufficient to give and to enforce such a code of 
morality, as shall lead even the poor and laboring class- 
es to all that is virtuous, and “ honest,” and “lovely,” 
and ‘‘of good report.” Christianity does not restrict 
its bounties to men of any rank or degree of mental 
cultivation; it labors for “the multitude,” and it zs “ cal- 
culated,” and eminently so, “ for the meridian of a great 
number of persons.” Christianity looks benignly on 
the whole world; is adapted alike to the poor and the 
rich, the bond and the free; announces its glad tidings 
to ‘every creature” who hears its “joyful sound ;” ex- 
cites all who have felt its power and enjoyed its com- 
forts to diffuse these blessings to “every nation, and 
tongue, and people, and kindred ;” and will be satisfied 


304 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


with nothing short of universal extension, when “all 
flesh shall see the salvation of God together.” 

We shall now proceed to a more particular inquiry, 
concerning the bearing of the respective systems on 
three important points, Man, Morats, and Happrt- 
NEss. We shall institute, with all due regard to brey- 
ity, a comparison of the views they respectively give us 
of man, the influence they exert on morals, and the pro- 
vision which they make for human happiness. 

And first, let us ask how the respective systems stand 
with regard to their views of Man. Man is evidently 
the lord of this lower world; not only is he distinguish- 
ed by the superior organization of his bodily frame, but 
still more by those mental faculties which give him so 
lofty a pre-eminence over all other living beings that in- 
habit this earth. As both the speculations of the athe- 
istic philosophy and the statements of Christianity pro- 
fess to throw a light on the nature, and relations, and 
prospects of man, the excellency or defect of either sys- 
tem may be made apparent by a comparison of both 
with reference to man. Atheism charges Christianity 
with being unsatisfactory and debasing ; all its views are, 
according to atheistic writers, chimerical, and its influ- 
ence degrading: Christianity not only denies the char- 
ges, but retorts them. Let us, then, submit the oppos- 
ing systems to the test of comparison on this point. 

What, then, is the origin of this wonderful structure, 
the human frame? We have, in some preceding lec- 
tures, Shown how complex are its parts, how numerous 
are its adaptations, and with what surprising accuracy 
the whole works. How just are the mechanical prin- 


LECT. V1.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 305 ~ 


ciples on which the solid frame-work is built, and how 
many are the ingenious contrivances for strength, mu- 
tual support, and protection of the vital parts, which 
are exhibited in the bones and joints, and especially in 
the skull, the vertebral column and the manner in 
which the head is: connected with the spine? How 
exquisite is the formation of every muscle, with its ten- 
dons; how accurately placed, so as to secure the prop- 
er motion of every moveable part of the human frame; 
—and how well furnished with nerves in innumerable 
ramifications, to establish a communication and a sym- 
pathy throughout the whole system. How surprising 
is the distinct hydraulic apparatus for circulating the 
blood, after the refined chemistry, which has converted 
the food into chyle, and that into the vital fluid; and no 
less so the pneumatic machinery of the chest and lungs; 
the exquisite construction of the organs of sense, and 
the complete adaptation of the whole to the world in 
which human beings exist, and the various productions 
with which it abounds. And we ask of either system, 
how it will account for the origin of all these wonders, 
exhibiting so complete an acquaintance with the princi- 
ples of mechanism, the most refined chemistry, the laws 
of hydraulics, pneumatics, and optics? Atheism an- 
swers, “It is a production of nature.” We ask again, 
what is nature ?—and we are told it “is the great 
whole that results from the assemblage of matter ;” that 
is, that matter, operating without design or intelligence, 
by “necessary laws,” happened unintentionally to form 
this crowning piece of ingenious workmanship. We 
are to believe, then, that on some occasion, a number of 


306 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


the elementary particles of matter, which had been eter- 
nally in motion, without any object or any guidance, 
happened to meet together, just at the same time and 
place, just of such kinds and in such quantities as to form 
the bony frame-work of the body, with all its cartilages 
and joints, and to provide the latter with an anti-attrition 
liquid, which, as though these senseless atoms had fore- 
sight, the working of them would certainly need; that 
others joined, as though by concert, to stretch bt the 
minute fibres of the muscles, and to sheath them and 
bind them together, and place them just in that position 
which it was necessary they should occupy in order to 
move the bones; and that some, as though they knew 
how to economize space, passed one muscle through 
another, or reeved it through a bone like a pulley, or 
made straps to bind down the tendon in their places; 
and that others at the same time arranged themselves 
so as to form a mouth, and teeth, and throat, and stom- 
ach; while again their fellows made the gastric juice, 
or at least organs to secrete it ; and another set as indus- 
triously arranged themselves into the shape of a heart, 
furnished with valves, and arteries, and veins, for the 
circulation of the blood; while their associates, at the 
same time, as though well skilled in pneumatics, made 
the lungs, and trachea, and larynx, and took care to 
provide a valve, lest the food should descend by a wrong 
tube. All these, however, and a thousand more dis- 
tinct contrivances, would have been of no use without 
eyes; but just at this juncture, we are further to sup- 
pose, some thousands of particles, that had been wan- 
dering about for all eternity, happened to meet just in 


od 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 307 


the same spot, and, as the bone-makers had quite unin- 
tentionally left two strongly protected cavities, commu- 
nicating with that which contained the brain, set about 
making, on optical principles, a pair of eyes to fit them, 
some forming the various humors and lenses, and 
others the retina, to receive the rays, and others the 
beautiful iris, to regulate the quantity of light; while 
their companions, with other combinations, made mus- 
cles to move the eye in every direction, and eye-lids 
to protect it, and glands to prepare a ‘liquid to keep it 
moist; and that this curious structure, made in such a 
way, was just suited to the air, and the light, and the 
water, and the productions of the globe, which were to 
minister to its future subsistence. But this was but 
one; whether male or female, it must, if alone, have 
perished. Just then, at the same time, we are required 
to believe that, as though there had been a mutual un- 
derstanding, certain other companies of vagabond atoms, 
which the necessary laws of matter had been driving 
about from all eternity, in one direction or another, met, 
and performed the same wonders, with this difference, 
that one of another sex was made in order to continue 
the race! What is there satisfactory in this? Is any 
cause assigned adequate to the production of such 
effects? Is it possible to imagine a greater: failure? 
Could all the romantic speculations in which eccentric 
genius has ever indulged, afford any thing more unsat- 
isfactory and visionary?* Now, let us turn to Chris- 


* However modified and diverse may be the theories on which 
atheism endeavors to account for the existence of man, they ap- 
pear equally absurd and extravagant, 


308 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


tianity, and receive her explanation. We are informed, 
that a Being of infinite wisdom and power, having 
formed and fitted up this world, made man of the same 
materials as the globe, and imparted to him the 
breath of life; and that seeing it was “not good for 
man to be alone,” “a help-meet ” for him was also cre- 
ated. That “in the beginning” “male and female” 
were thus created, with a view both to their mutual 
comfort and the continuance of the race. Is there any 
thing unreasonable in this? Here is a cause complete- 
ly adequate to the effect, by which all the surprising, 
and beautiful, and benevolent contrivances in man’s 
formation are accounted for in a manner the most sat- 
isfactory. 

Consider again the marvellous workings of the hu- 
man mind, and all the phenomena of thought. How 
profound are the reasonings, how exalted the concep- 
tions, how commanding the genius, which distinguish 
mind! How numerous and surprising are the discov- 
eries which it has made in every department of nature ; 
how extensive the dominion which it exercises over 
matter, and the power which it possesses of making all 
material properties subserve the happiness and improve- 
ment of the human race! It recalls the past, antici- 
pates the future, and brings present whatever is remote. 
How great is the power which it possesses, of abstract- 
ing, combining, generalizing, and classifymg: what 
brilliancy of fancy and smartness of wit does it not 
sometimes display! How strong and tender the affec- 
tions, how authoritative and dominant the will, which 
is capable, when a sufficient motive is addressed to it, 


? 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 309 


of resisting all the animal propensities all the excite- 
ment of desire, ali the allurements of pleasure, all the 
hope of gain, and all the terrors of death! And, how 
does the atheistic philosophy explain the existence and 
the origin of such powers? It resolves all into matter 
and motion. All that is pure in love, that is exalted in 
friendship, that is tender in maternal regard, is only the 
result of some mechanical action or chemical affinity. 
All the bright visions of glory that stood before the 
mind of a Milton, were but the dance of certain atoms 
in his brain,—the enlarged conceptions. and the pro- 
found reasonings of Newton, by which he generalized 
innumerable insulated facts, and discovered the great 
law of nature, was only a lucky congregation of cer- 
tain medullary particles, that, meeting together most ap- 
propriately, and in a most fortunate position in his 
brain, kindled a light that diffused itself through the 
whole world of mind, and commenced a new era in 
science. Every virtue that adorns, every grace that 
beautifies, and every sublime trait of magnanimity that 
ennobles the human character ;—the daring of the hero, 
the devotion of the patriot, the benevolence of the phi- 
lanthropist, and the. piety of the martyr, are nothing 
but the properties of that food, which, after having exist- 
ed in a vegetable form, entered into the composition of 
the et on which man has fed; which, haying been 
taken into the stomach and Nideted and received into 
the general mass of blood,—after having passed through 
all these parts and processes, became all that was bril- 
liant, and powerful, and lovely in mind! This philoso- 
phy, in fact, Jeads to the conclusion, that man has noth. 


310 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


ing to identify him with his past existence;—that the 
substance, which at a previous period thought, and rea- 
soned, and felt, now no more belongs to him than it 
does to the earth on which he lives, or to the cattle 
which graze on the plain; and that without any one 
principle of identity he has changed all that constitutes 
himself some ten or twelve times during his life! And 
this is the philosophy, which, according to the modest 
pretensions of one of its advocates, whom we have often 
quoted, professes to be able, “ without recurring to chi- 
merical causes, to explain every thing!” Now, what 
is the view which Christianity gives of the mind of 
man’? It teaches that it is a distinct and living princi- 
ple, acting by the organs of the body, indestructible in 
its nature, and, amidst all the changes which the body 
undergoes, remaining identically the same; that, en- 
dowed with properties which belong to no material sub- 
stance, it is for a time connected inseparably with the 
body, but that, itself a spirit, created by the great 
“Father of Spirits,” in his own “image and likeness,” 
it is capable of existing in the presence of its adorable 
Maker, of perceiving his glories, and enjoying his fa- 
vor, when the mortal body shall be slumbering in the 
tomb. Admit the truth of atheism, and all is dark, 
dubious, and unsatisfactory :—admit the truth of Chris- 
tianity, and information is given, by which the phenom- 
ena of both matter and mind are accounted for, and a 
satisfactory relation established between the effects 
which appear and the cause to which they are assigned. 

But atheism would have us to believe that its philoso- 
phy is an ennobling and elevated speculation, while 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 311 


Christianity is a debasing superstition. The effrontery 
of such an assumption must be evident on a moment’s 
comparison. Atheism teaches, that man in his best 
state is nothing higher nor better than a beast of the 
earth, with a physical organization superior to his. fel- 
low beasts; that, by certain necessary laws of uncon- 
scious matter, he came into being without either design 
or end; that here he has no relation to any thing but 
matter, whose forms are ever varying and perishing ; 
that he is tossed about on the uncertain billows of an 
ever fluctuating state, as chance may befall or fatality 
compel him; that in a few short years he will suffer a 
complete annihilation, and have no more existence than 
his dog, or than the worm which is crushed beneath 
his feet: in a word, that his origin is chance, his life a 
vapor, and his prospects an eternal blank. Christian- 
ity, on the other hand, teaches him to look to the glo- 
rious Creator of all worlds as his Maker and Govern- 
or, to consider himself allied by his immortal spirit to 
myriads of the highest order of created intelligences, 
and to the Infinite Spirit himself; and it shows him a 
land beyond the grave, points to a deathless existence 
in a world where all his powers, now so contracted and 
confined and interrupted in their exercise, shall have 
ample room to expand, and the most glorious objects to 
employ them. Go, says atheism, go, weary mortal, 
worn out with the perplexities of a mysterious existence 
which nothing can explain, exhausted with the cares 
and pains of an evanescent and worthless being, lie down 
on the bosom of thy mother earth, sink contentedly 
into the undisturbed quiescence of nonentity, and render 


312 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


back all that now composes thee to nature, to form new 
combinations, and to live again in some other form. 
Ennobling prospect—all that thinks, and feels, and rea- 
.sons In man, must go into corruption; and the very 
particles which formed the soul of a Bacon or a Locke, 
may successively form the sensorium of a worm, a spi- 
der, a bat, and an ass! Glorious philosophy! 

The next point to which we ‘proceed in our compar- 
ison, is that of Morats; and this opens so wide a field, 
that we must, as much as the subject will admit, con- 
tract our survey and condense our remarks. That 
atheism should make great pretensions to morality may 
appear very strange, whether we regard those high and 
powerful sanctions to virtue which it denounces as chi- 
merical fancies, or the results which have generally 
attended an adoption of its tenets. Yet, surprising as 


it may seem, its advocates laud it to the skies, as teach- - 


ing the purest and highest morality, by enforcing a 
“ system of nature,” while all religion is despised as a 


demoralizing superstition. Before we make our com- 


parison, let us hear the parallel of contrast which a 
celebrated patron of this philosophy draws. 

“ Every thing that has been advanced,” says the au- 
thor I now refer to, “ evidently proves that superstitious 
morality is an infinite loser, when compared with the 
morality of nature, with which, indeed, it is found in 
perpetual contradiction. Natwre invites man to love 
himself, to preserve his existence, to incessantly aug- 
ment the sum of his happiness; swperstition teaches 
him to be in love only with formidable doctrines, calcu- 
lated to generate his dislike; to detest himself;—to sac- 


—— 


* 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. Sts 


rifice to his idols his most pleasing sensations, the most 
legitimate pleasures of his heart. Nature counsels 
man to consult reason, to adopt it for his guide; swper- 
stition portrays this reason as corrupted, as a treach- 
erous director, that will infallibly lead himastray. Na- 
twre warns him to enlighten his understanding, to 
search after truth, to inform himself of his duties; 
superstition enjoins him not to examine any thing, to 
remain in ignorance, to fear truth; it persuades him 
there are no relations so important to his interest, as 
those which subsist hetween himself and systems which 
he can never understand. Nature tells the being who 
is in love with his welfare to moderate his passions, to 
resist them when they are found destructive to himself, 
to counteract them by substantive motives collected 
from experience; swperstition desires a sensible being 
to have no passions, to be an insensible mass, or else to 
combat his propensities, by motives borrowed from the 
imagination, which are as variable as itself, Nature 
exhorts man to be sociable, to love his fellow-creatures, 
to be just, peaceable, indelgent, benevolent, to permit 
his associates to freely enjoy their opinions; swpersti- 
tion admonishes him to fly society, to detach himself 
from his fellow-mortals, to hate them when their imagin- 
ation does not procure them dreams conformable to his 
own; to break through the most sacred bonds, to main- 
tain his own opinions, or to frustrate those of his neigh- 
bor; to torment, to persecute, to massacre those who 
will not be mad after his own peculiar manner. Na- 
ture exacts that man in society should cherish. glory, 
labor to render himself estimable, endeavor to establish 


314 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


an imperishable name, to be active, courageous, indus- 
trious ; superstition tells him to be abject, pusillanimous, 
to live in obscurity, to occupy himself with ceremonies; 
it says to him, be useless to thyself, and do nothing for 
others. Natwre proposes to the citizen for his model, 
men endued with honest, noble, energetic souls, who 
have usefully served their fellow-citizens ; superstition 
recommends to his imitation mean, cringing sycophants ; 
extols pious enthusiasts, frantic penitents, zealous fanat- 
les, who, for the most ridiculous opinions, have disturb- 
ed the tranquillity of empires. Natwre urges the hus- 
band to be tender to attach himself to the company of 
his mate, to cherish her in his bosom; superstition 
makes a crime of his susceptibility, frequently obliges 
him to look upon the conjugal bonds as a state of pollu- 
tion, as the offspring of imperfection. Nature calls to 
the father to nurture his children, to cherish their affec- 
tion, to make them useful members of society ; swper- 
stttion advises him to rear them in fear of its systems, 
to hoodwink them, to make them superstitious, which 
renders them incapable of actually serving society, but 
extremely well calculated to disturb its repose. Na- 
ture cries out to children, to honor the authors of their 
being, to love their parents, to listen to their admoni- 
tions, to be the support of their old age; superstition 
says, prefer the oracles in support of the systems of 
which you are an admitted member, trample father and 
mother under your feet. Natwre holds out to the phi- 
losopher, that he should occupy himself with useful 
objects, consecrate his cares to his country, make advan- 
tageous discoveries suitable to perfection the condition 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 315 


of mankind; superstition saith, occupy thyself with 
useless reveries, employ thy time in endless disputes, 
scatter about with a lavish hand the seeds of discord, 
calculated to induce the carnage of thy fellows, obsti- 
nately maintain opinions which thou thyself canst 
never understand.” * 

In this comparison, let it be observed, that it is Chris- 
tianity to which reference is here especially made, and 
which is designated a “superstition.” It was not to 
expose the errors and rebuke the fanaticism of pagan 
idolatry that the work was written; to undermine and 
destroy Christianity was its obvious design, though 
reasons existed at the time of its publication, why the 
author should be somewhat guarded in his expressions, 
and make use of general rather than of specific terms. f 
It is also worthy of remark, that here almost every 
thing that is unnatural, cruel, licentious, and base; 
every thing that virtue hates and man abhors; every 
thing which destroys individual happiness, poisons the 
comforts of domestic life, and disorganizes society, is 
attributed to the influence of religion! But is this 
Christianity? Is the charge thus intended to be made 


* Syst. of Nat.—Vol. I. pp. 488—441, Chap. entitled ‘ 'THE0Lo- 
cy not Morauiry.” 

+ For the same reason, probably, the work goes under a feign- 
ed name. Though it bears the name of Mirabaud as its author, 
who died at the advanced age of eighty-six, in 1760, the work 
was not published, it appears, till ten years after his death, and 
is generally believed to be the production of some other person ; 
—perhaps I should say persons, as the glaring contradictions 
which are found in it would lead to the supposition that different 
parts of it were written by different individuals. 


316 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECTI ya: 


against it, true or false? Is it a fair representation, or 
afoul slander? Let us examine. 

That the most extravagant vagaries have, in different 
ages of the world and in various circumstances, assum- 
ed the name of religion, no one can deny. But what 
is this to Christianity? It must also be acknowledged, 
with deep regret, that the state policy which has, in 
most of the governments of Europe, made Christianity 
national, has given a most incongruous exhibition of | 
that “kingdom” which is “not of this world ;’ that 
this procedure has too often, while ingrafting a form 
and a creed on the vices of the human heart, secured a 
support for despotism, and lent itself to persecution ; and 
that excesses, which outrage the spirit and contradict 
the precepts of Christianity, have claimed the sanction 
of its name. But is Christianity to be charged with 
abuses, which in the strongest terms it condemns? 
We also remember that in France, wheré this was first 
published, all that was licentious in manners, both in 
the court and in the clergy, was combined with the 
most ridiculous superstitions, the ignorant and intem- 
perate zeal of bigotry, and not unfrequently with a 
deep hypocrisy and cruel fanaticism, which tended to 
hasten on that frightful catastrophe which buried, in one 
common ruin, both the altar and the throne. But, all 
the crimes of Nero might as well be charged on civil 
government, or the fatal qualities of the poison imputed 
to the pure water in which deleterious drugs are infus- 
ed, as these excesses be attributed to the holy and beney- 
olent spirit of the gospel. And it is further granted, 
that wherever Christianity has existed, and in whatever 


LECT. VI.] WiTH CHRISTIANITY. 317 


form, some have professed its sacred name whose con- 
duct has dishonored it; the friendship of these, Chris- 
tianity rejects, their alliance she repels with indigna- 
tion, and limits all the blessings which she bestows to 
those whose lives are regulated by the precepts of the 
gospel. 

Having made these concessions and explanations, I 
ask of the most confirmed disciple of atheism now pres- 
ent, who has read the New Testament, made himself 
acquainted with the life, and doctrine, and precepts of 
its founder, the exhortations and examples of his cho- 
sen apostles, and who has considered the preaching 
and the practice of those who are living under the in- 
fluence of Christianity, and making it the great business ~ 
of their lives, whether the comparison is fairly made,— 
whether such “charges are true—whether sach are 
the genuine features of Christianity? Does it com- 
mand man to extinguish his desire for happiness, or to 
sacrifice any pleasure worth enjoying, which does not 
lead to misery? Has it nothing to say of “abounding 
in hope,” “rejoicing with joy unspeakable,” of a 
“peace which passeth all understanding?’ Does it 
not secure advantages in “the life which now is,” as 
well as in “that which is to come?” Is it true that it 
forbids us “to examine any thing,” that it tells us “to 
remain in ignorance, to fear the truth?” Does it never 
exhort us to “ prove all things, and hold fast that which 
is good?” Do the sacred writers never appeal to our 
reason on the evidences of Christianity, and the claims 
of its Founder toa divine mission? Is our reason 
ever required to yield to faith, except when a higher au- 


318 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


thority speaks, and when the subject is beyond its 
grasp? Does the religion of the gospel aim to annihi- 
late “ the passions,” and reduce ourselves “ to an insen- 
sible mass?”” Why, then, are so many rules given us 
to guide and regulate these passions, so that they may 
be the means of good, and not of evil? Had the di- 
vine Author of Christianity no sensibilities, and did his 
apostles forbid us to “rejoice with them that do rejoice, 
and weep with those that weep?” Where is the pre- 
cept of the gospel that teaches us to persecute and mas- 
sacre those who do not ‘‘ maintain our own opinions ?” 
Is it in the inculcation of that charity which teaches us 
‘‘to believe all things, to endure all things, to hope all 
things,” or in those precepts which enjoin us to render 
blessing for cursing—or in his example who, when 
loaded with execrations and suffering undeserved tor- 
ments, breathed out the prayer ‘ Father, forgive them, 
they know not what they do?”? Who can be ignorant 
that conjugal love is blessed and sanctioned, that paren- 
tal affection is encouraged, that filial obedience is en- 
joined? Where is the precept written, or the example 
recorded, which urges us to “live useless to ourselves, 
and to do nothing for others?” Does it not command us 
to “do good unto all men,’—“to visit the fatherless and 
the widow, and the sick in their affliction?” Where is 
“abject pusillanimity”’ encouraged? Is it in such exhor- 
tations as those which direct us, “by patient continu- 
ance in well-doing, to seek for glory, and honor, and 
immortality?” Has Christianity done nothing, is it 
now doing nothing to encourage institutions which are 
designed to benefit the body and instruct the mind? 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 319 


Are there no heroic exertions, is there no self-devotion 
to be seen in those efforts of benevolence which are 
made in the East and West Indies, among the ices of 
Greenland, or in the scorching climes of the equator? 
Does Christianity cherish no warm feelings of attach- 
ment for our native land or our fellow-countrymen ? 
Was there no love of country in those labors which 
sought assiduously “the lost sheep of the house of 
Israel,’—or in those tears which were so profusely 
shed over Jerusalem—or in that “great heaviness” 
and continual sorrow of heart, which, amidst all his 
cares, and labors, and successes, still pressed on the 
mind of an apostle for his countrymen, the Jews? But 
it is unnecessary to proceed; it must be evident to ev- 
ery candid mind, that if this author had endeavored to 
exhibit a perfect contrast to all that Christianity is, and 
all that it commands, he could scarcely have drawn a 
more complete picture. 

And observe farther; Nature teaches a man “to 
augment his own happiness,” “to consult reason,” “to 
enlighten his understanding,” “to search after truth,” 
“to moderate his passions,” “to love his fellow-crea- 
tures,’ &c. We admit that reason and conscience, 
when passion does not drown their voice, and they are 
listened to, will show that these things are right and 
proper. And Christianity, instead of overlooking them, 
gives light to reason, and power to conscience to en- 
force them. All that nature teaches, Christianity 
teaches, and much more. Christianity has a voice 
where nature is silent ; she decides where nature doubts ; 
she unfolds to the view, objects of commanding power, 


3820 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


and deepest interest, and holiest influence; to enlighten, 
and purify, and exalt, and strengthen nature. Chris- 
tianity is not the foe, but the best friend of nature. Her 
kind and benignant influence prompts to every thing 
which can benefit an individual or a state,—raises the 
standard of morals, elevates every noble sentiment, and, 
expanding the heart with charity, sums up the whole 
of its precepts in one word, “‘love;” for “love is the ful- 
filling of the law.” If hesitation should ever occur as 
to the line of duty to others, she supplies a principle. of 
universal application; “all things whatsoever ye would 
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” 
And if any duty or course of action should occur, to 
which no specific precept applies,a general rule is 
given in such terms as these:—‘‘ Whatsoever things 
are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever 
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good re- 
port; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, 
think on these things.” 

A candid examination of what Christianity is, will 
not only prove, that the charges advanced against it, 
are unfounded calumnies, but will show that we are 
justified in asserting, that, besides exhibiting a purer 
and more elevated system of morality than atheism can 
inculcate,—defining more accurately its duties, and 
affording a greater number of illustrious examples, it 
possesses means and motives to restrain crime and to 
promote virtue, to which the atheistic philosophy is an 
utter stranger. In order to prove this, it is not neces: 
sary that we should enter into any elaborate disquisition 


LECT. V1.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 321 


on the nature of virtue, and the grounds of moral obli- 
gation. A slight reference to the morality of atheism, 
and the sanctions by which it is enforced, will show 
that itis essentially deficient in those very points in 
which Christianity excels. The following is, I pre- 
sume, a fair sketch of the atheistic system of morality. 
The great object of man’s pursuit, is and ought to be 
his own happiness; to secure this, he must put a degree 
of restraint on his own passions and desires; and as 
his happiness is partly dependent on others, among 
whom he lives, he must refrain from injuring them, 
lest they injure him, and confer benefits on them, that 
he may in return receive benefits again.* Now, it 
must be observed, that whatever virtue this philosophy 
approves, or whatever vice it condemns, all the reward 
of the one and the punishment of the other belong to 


*“ Pleasure and pain, the hope of happiness, or the fear of 
misery, are the only motives suitable to have an efficacious influ. 
ence on the volition of sensible beings: to impel them towards 
this end, it is sufficient these motives exist and be understood: to 
have a knowledge of them, it is only requisite to consider our 
own constitution; according to this, we shall find we can only 
love those actions, approve that conduct, from whence result ae- 
tual and reciprocal utility; this constitutes Virtur: In conse 
quence, to conserve ourselves, to make our own happiness, to 
enjoy security, we are compelled to follow the routine which 
conducts to this end: to interest others in our own preservation, 
we are obliged to display an interest in theirs; we must do noth- 
ing that can have a tendency to interrupt that mutual co-opera- 
tion, which alone can lead to the felicity desired. Such is the 
true establishment of moral obligation.”—Systemof Nature, Vol. 
II. p. 428, 

‘Efe (7. e. man) will allow, that to conserve himself, to secure 


21 


322 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


this life, to the brief mortal existence of the virtuous or 
vicious individual. Atheism looks no farther, and de- 
clares that all beyond is a blank, an eternal nonentity. 
What, then, is to support virtue, when that very virtue 
is unpopular, when it brings only misery, and poverty, 
and scorn; or when, after enduring the vexatious per- 
secutions of the ignorant, the bigoted, and the interest- 
ed, in the consequences of which all that are dear to 
him share, the sufferer sees nothing before him but an 
ignominious death? Can the abstract love of virtue 
support a man under all this; when a compliance with 
the custom of the times, and a conformity to the prac- 
tices of others would bring comfort, and prosperity, and 
honor? But it may be said he would suffer im his 
own esteem, were he to act otherwise than according to 
his own standard of right and wrong. Be it so; will 
not his views of the standard or rule of duty be affected 
by the recollection that it is his duty, and should be his 
object, to enjoy as much of happiness as this fleeting 
life will allow, and that nothing can indemnify him for 


his own permanent welfare, he is frequently obliged to resist the 
blind impulse of his own desires ; that, to conciliate the benevo- 
lence of others, he must act in a mode conformable to their ad- 
vantage ; in reasoning thus, he will find out what virtue actually 
is: if he puts his theory into practice, he will be virtuous; he 
will be rewarded for his conduct, by the harmony of his own 
machine; by the legitimate esteem of himself, confirmed by the 
good opinion of others, whose kindness he will have secured: if 
he acts in a contrary mode, the trouble that will ensue, the dis- 
order of his frame, will quickly warn him that nature, thwarted 
by his actions, disapproves his conduct, which is injurious to him- 
self; to which he will be obliged to add the condemnation of 
others, who will hate him.”—Vol. IL. p. 437. 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 323 


a loss in this respect? Will virtue, in such a ease, 
apart from his happiness, and contrary to it, appear 
much more than an empty name; and will he be likely 
to sacrifice to it all the substantial good that he can 
ever enjoy? 

And further, as, according to the atheistic philoso- 
phy, it must be the sum of a man’s desires and duty, to 
make as much of this life as he can, to have those grat- 
ifications which he values most highly, what should 
bind a mar to be virtuous, whose propensities, whether 
constitutional or acquired, lead allthe other way? Sup- 
pose a man should say, I feel unspeakably more happi- 
ness in wine, and revelry, and libidinous pleasures, than 
I can in any virtuous self-denial which you recom- 
mend: if you are happy in abstemiousness, I am _hap- 
py in indulgence, you go your way, and I go mine; we 
are both fulfilling the end of our being, we are enjoy- 
ing the happiness we prize, each in his own way. 
What, in such a case, could be objected to him? The 
graver atheist might, perhaps, reply,—But, in so doing 
you are constantly living under excitement, you are 
shortening the very term of enjoyment, you are pre- 
paring for yourself an early grave. Might not the ar- 
dent voluptuary retort,—This is the only way in which I 
can be happy; the “necessary laws” of nature have 
made me what Iam; I am accountable to no one in 
heaven or earth, providing I do not bring myself under 
the power of the laws: I know the price at which my 
happiness is purchased, and am content to pay it; “a 
short life and a merry one” for me, Let the very stuff 
that life is made of consume with the enjoyment—it ig 


324 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


my only heaven; let the taper burn like phosphorus in 
oxygen, rapidly, indeed, but with a bright, and brilliant 
flame ; and when it expires I shall be just as happy as 
the gravest, and the most temperate, and the most virtu- 
ous of men. And who, on atheistical principles, could 
contradict or blame him? 

And what is the check which it has on crime? It 
is inexpedient, because it tends to misery, by forfeiting 
the good opinion of others, and by sinking a man in 
his own esteem. . But some men become so hardened 
in guilt as to lose all sense of honor, and, by repeated 
acts of sin, almost to paralyze every moral feeling, and 
to deaden the remonstrating power within their bosom; 
what then shall awaken a torpid conscience, or impose 
any barrier to still greater guilt? If the dishonesty of 
a knave can be concealed, if the adulteries of the de- 
bauchee are not detected, if the oppressions or murders 
of the tyrant be above the reach of law, or if any one 
of these possesses the means of eluding its grasp, so 
that he can sin with impunity, what is to prevent him? 
Let the atheist reason with him on his dishonorable 
course and his flagrant sin, may he not repel him by 
saying,—Vices and virtues are but names; pleasure is 
pleasure by whatever term it may be designated, and 
this is the only mode, and the highest measure of my 
gratification. If I can profit by what you call villany, 
and find gratification in those passions which you call 
vices, if the possession of wealth, however obtained, if 
the indulgence in lust or revenge, if the wanton exer- 
cise of power be the elements of my happiness, why 
should I not be happy in my own way? since, as you 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 325 


tell me, no God sees me, no tribunal will judge me, no 
heaven would reward my virtue, no hell will punish my 
crimes: Iam pursuing the end of my existence, and 
when my career is closed, I shall be in the same eter- 
nal sleep as those whose virtues have been most lauded 
by mankind. In such a system, then, what support 
can there be for suffering virtue,—what motive for high 
and generous deeds, which require the sacrifice of all 
that is dear in life-—what power has it of restraining 
vice, and checking undetected or triumphant crime ? 
Look, now, at Christianity, and mark how transcend- 
ently superior to every consideration of temporary util- 
ity are the motives which it presents to the mind, and 
the manner in which it enforces the practice of virtue. 
First, it assures us that the present state of existence is 
only preparatory to another which shall never termi- 
nate, and that the character of our future immortality, 
whether of glory or disgrace, of happiness or misery, 
of safety or of ruin, depends entirely on the manner in 
which this probationary term is passed; that, in fact, 
“ what a man sows that shall he also reap.” It farther 
points our, attention to an ever-present Deity, who 
marks with approbation every virtuous struggle, and 
notices with displeasure every incipient crime, while 
yet it exists only in the desire or intention; it reminds 
us that we never act without a witness, that in the deep- 
est solitude and in the busy crowd we are alike observ- 
ed by One who “is of purer eyes than to behold iniqui- 
ty,” without marking it for punishment. It tells the 
sinner, whom concealment may tempt to an indulgence 
in vice, that there is One “who seeth in secret, and re- 


326 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


wardeth openly.” It warns the proud and impious 
transgressor, who may bid defiance to human laws, that 
there is a Supreme Judge, who, “without respect to 
persons,” marks every crime; whose vigilance none can 
escape, whose power none can brave, before whose tri- 
bunal the rich and the poor, the oppressor and the op- 
pressed, must alike stand to receive the reward of their 
deeds ; that neither wealth, nor power, nor long impu- 
nity, nor death nor the grave, shall screen the offender 
from the final and impartial scrutiny, or protect him 
from avenging justice. If the sinner be filled with re- 
morse and penitence, he is not abandoned to despair, 
nor compelled to consider recovery to virtue hopeless: 
pardon is promised, “and that by means which speak 
its value infinite;” and he is encouraged to return, by 
the assurance that the same grace which forgives his 
guilt will also renovate his fallen nature, and assist him 
to “walk in newness of life.’ 'T'o virtue, in all its dis- 
tresses, though oppressed, forsaken, and scorned by 
man, it gives this divine consolation and support, that 
the great Father and Sovereign of the universe beholds 
him with approving smiles, that he has not forsaken 
him,—that he never will; and that, if misery be entailed 
on him in this life by his conscientious integrity, if, by 
a bold singularity in the cause of truth and virtue, he 
is dishonored and slighted by his fellow-men, there is a 
radiant crown reserved for-him, which, in another 
world, shall sparkle on his brows, when, with the celes- 
tial and holy spirits of heaven, he shall rest from his 
labors, and enjoy a full reward for all his sufferings 
and all his exertions. If any thing can purify the heart, 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. BY 


expand every generous affection, support every glorious 
action, and prompt to every sacrifice which the cause 
of truth and benevolence may demand, it is such a sys- 
tem, it is such prospects as these! Contrast with this 
view, and draw your own conclusion, the cold, the 
heartless scheme, which removes from the mind the 
idea of supreme and infinite excellence, which destroys 
the belief in a holy and invisible God, the witness and 
the judge of human conduct, and treats as useless fic- 
tions all the solemnities and the glories of the world to 
come ;—-which buries all excellence in the tomb, makes 
the end of a man and a beast the same, and takes for 
its motto, “let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” 
We now advance to the third and last point of com- 
parison, the Happiness which the two systems are 
respectively capable of yielding. ‘To a person unac- 
quainted with the writings of those who advocate the 
atheistic philosophy, it would appear in no small de- 
gree surprising and singular, to notice in what lugubri- 
ous strains they deplore, or affect to deplore, the misery 
of which men have been the subjects through religion, 
and to hear its panegyrics on the power of this system 
to bestow happiness‘on man. It seems scarcely to be 
credited, that a scheme which excludes the great Father 
of mankind from its creed, and future happiness from 
its prospects, should assert its claims as a benefactor of 
the human race. ‘That it is the great and the professed 
object of Christianity to benefit mankind, and in the 
highest degree and by the most effectual methods to 
augment our happiness, needs no proof. Let us, then, 
as we have done in other particulars, submit the two 


> 


328 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. Vi. 


%, 
systems to a brief comparison in this respect. There 
are two things which deserve consideration, in estimat- 
ing the respective merits of the systems on this point. 
The happiness which, in ordinary circumstances, each 
can yield, and the consolation which, in times of trouble 
and adversity, each can supply. 

In estimating the happiness which atheism and 
Christianity can respectively yield, we notice, in the 
first place, some sources of enjoyment which are com- 
mon to both. The necessaries and comforts of life are 
not limited to any kind of belief; the enjoyment of 
health and strength, the use of our senses and limbs, 
domestic pleasures and the sweets of friendship, with 
all the productions of the globe, the light of heaven, 
and the air we breathe, are blessings common to all: 
the beauties of nature, the wonders of science, the pleas- 
ures of literature, and the refinements of taste, are equal- 
ly accessible to the believer and the unbeliever, These 
are pleasures which the atheist can enjoy, and which 
are not forbidden to the Christian. But, admitting an 
atheist and a Christian to possess the same portion of 
these comforts, there are associations which Christian- 
ity connects with them, of so interesting a nature as 
must tend to give refinement to the pleasure which 
they yield, and greatly to heighten their enjoyment. 
What does the atheist see in all these comforts and 
bounties, but the operation of physical and necessary 
causes; and what does he perceive in all the loveliness 
and sublimity of nature, but accidental combinations of 
matter without intended arrangement, and without de- 
sign or end? But, when all these are viewed as the 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 829 
use 
works of an Almighty artist, and the exhibitions of pa- 


ternal wisdom and goodness, in how different a light 
does every thing appear, and how different are the emo- 
tions which these objects excite. The veriest trifle is 
endeared to us, when it is the gift of friendship; and 
when all the comforts which the Christian enjoys are 
traced up to the Giver of “every good and perfect gift,” 
how additionally sweet is the enjoyment of them, and 
how greatly augmented is their value! What words 
can fully express the delight with which a review of 
the mercies of a gracious God has thrilled through the 
soul, when it has responded to the language of the 
grateful psalmist, “ what shall I render unto the Lord 
for all his benefits toward me!” Who, that possesses 
any sensibility of mind, has not, when viewing the 
beautiful variety and splendid magnificence of nature’s 
scenery, felt the heart glowing and expanding with 
emotions of the most delightful kind, which the recol- 
lection of the still more glorious and beneficent Power 
that formed them, has turned into adoring admiration 
and grateful praise? But, let him suppose for a mo- 
ment, just at the time when the heart is thus full, that 
no intelligence has formed these wonders, or painted 
these beauties, or lighted up these glories, but that it all 
is nothing more than the fortuitous and undesigned 
combinations of unconscious matter; and the expand- 
ing bosom immediately feels a collapse, the glow of the 
heart is suddenly chilled, and the spirit sighs over all 
these evanescent forms of accidental beauty. The gifts 
of nature and the wonders of the fair creation must 
necessarily lose a great portion of their value, and their 


330 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


highest power of producing happiness, when a benefi- 
cent and ever-glorious Creator is not acknowledged. 
But atheism and Christianity profess each to have 
sources of happiness peculiarly its own. What, then, 
does atheism promise? It offers, first, a more unre- 
strained license of enjoyment in reference to earthly 
pleasures. All that an individual feels, would, on the - 
whole, give him the greatest share of enjoyment, what- 
ever be his habits or propensities he is at full liberty to 
pursue, providing he has the means and opportunity, 
and is content to pay the price in property, or charac- 
ter, or health. And, in the next place, it proposes to 
remove all the annoyance which would be produced by 
a belief that an invisible and Almighty Being is pres- 
ent, observing and recording all our thoughts, and 
words, and actions. It further guarantees the removal 
of all fear of the future, so that no punishment in the 
world to come, no future tribunal or judge, shall at all 
restrict or interfere with the course which a man means 
or wishes to pursue. Beyond this, atheism cannot go; 
and even on its advantages of this kind, there are many 
serious drawbacks. How few have found, after their 
most ardent pursuit of those pleasures, and gaieties, and 
follies which Christianity forbids, that happiness in 
them which they expected! How many have deeply 
felt, after having tried them all, that they were but 
“vanity and vexation of spirit!” And how uncertain 
is the continuance of all these joys; at best, how tran- 
sient is their nature! “ All flesh is as grass; and all 
the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field.’ And 
what comfort is there in the prospect of the future? 


LECT. VI] WITH CHRISTIANITY. Bs! 


There can be no anticipations of any thing beyond the 
grave. When the joys of the atheist are highest, and 
his happiness greatest, if he looks forward, he sees the 
tomb gaping to receive the whole, and an eternal obliv- 
ion ready to cast its deepest shadows over every thing 
beloved and valued. 

Is it asked, on the other hand, what peculiar joys 
Christianity has to bestow? We scarcely know how 
in a few words to answer, so vast is the field opened to 
our view. How supremely glorious and unspeakably 
interesting are the objects which it presents to the mind, 
and to which it invites the contemplations; the ever- 
glorious God, in all his divine perfections, “ of whom, 
and through whom, and to whom are all things; the 
Maker, the Benefactor, the Parent, and the Sovereign 
of the whole universe, “ glorious in his holiness,” and 
“rich in his mercy ;” it exhibits him in his universal 
government, as directing all things by his infinite wis- 
dom, and in an economy of mercy displaying in a most 
impressive manner the wonders of his love and grace, 
in providing for the restoration of fallen man to happi- 
ness and glory. Christianity brings man into the high- 
est and noblest of all relations; it connects him by faith 
with that adorable and mysterious Redeemer whom 
“all the.angels of God worship,” and who gave “ his 
life a ransom for many;” it declares him to be, in a 
new and peculiar sense, a child of God, and encour- 
ages him with filial confidence to call the Lord of all 
worlds his father; it identifies him with a sacred com- 
munity, which is called “the church of the living 
God,” the peculiar object of the Divine love and care, 


302 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


which comprises “an innumerable company of angels 
and the spirits of just men made perfect.” And to his 
admiring eyes it opens a prospect of futurity the most 
delightful and glorious. It assures him that his aspira- 
tions after a happy immortality shall be gratified in a 
manner far exceeding all his conceptions, in a state the 
full glories of which, “the eye hath not seen, the ear 
hath not heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of 
man to conceive.” There, the Christian is taught to 
expect, his knowledge shal] receive a large increase, 
when faith shall be exchanged for sight, and his pow- 
ers shall be adapted to a superior state of existence, and 
able to take an inconceivably wider range than is now 
possible; that there he shall have a far more distinct 
perception of the great Sovereign of the universe; see 
that sacred person whose unbounded love and generous 
sacrifice procured his redemption; behold those glori- 
ous spirits which rank far higher than man in the scale 
of creation, and all those illustrious patriarchs, and 
prophets, and apostles, and martyrs, of whose devoted 
piety and heroic sufferings he has so often read with 
delight. There he looks for complete purity, for the 
absence of all those imperfections of which he is con- 
scious in the present life; for a discharge from a war- 
fare between the dictates of an enlightened mind and 
the animal propensities and passions of a fallen nature. 
There he expects every social feeling of man’s pure 
nature to be exercised; while he mingles in the society 
of kindred minds, where all is benevolence of heart, 
and mistake is no longer possible; where he shall again 
join those with whom he held sweet converse on earth, 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 333 


without the fear of death or the pangs of parting. To 
this place he looks as his home, as his rest, to which 
he is now journeying, and after which he is panting: 
there his hopes are to be realized, the largest wishes of 
his heart to be accomplished, and his joys to receive 
their consummation. In a word, Christianity awakens 
in the mind every feeling which constitutes an. element 
of the purest-and the highest happiness of which human 
nature is capable; all that is valuable in possession, and 
that gives a consciousness of safety; deliverance from 
the greatest dangers and the acquisition of the highest 
good; the contemplation of all that is sublime in gran- 
deur, or lovely in beauty, or touching in boundless gen- 
erosity, all that delights the soul in holy love, and ten- 
der charity, and grateful emotion, and all that can glad- 
den the heart in prospective joys, in the anticipation of 
which it is impossible to exaggerate. Now, what are 
the capabilities of atheism, when compared with this? 

That in this world, all are subject to difficulties and 
distresses, which no prudence can avert, and from 
which no age, or sex, or station, or character can 
claim exemption, is a fact which none can question. 
These interfere with our comforts, abstract from. our 
enjoyment, and often render unavailing the various 
means of earthly happiness which we possess. . In 
such circumstances, what can the atheistic philosophy 
and Christianity respectively do for man? 

There are two sources of consolation in such circum- 
stances, which atheism can claim, and only two which 
it can consider properly its own. The one arises from 
its views of necessity, or what one of its ablest advo- 


304 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


cates hesitates not to term “fatality.” All that any one 
in any case suffers is unavoidable, it is therefore useless 
to repine. It is not the ordination of a sovereign wis- 
dom and goodness, that may convert these misfortunes 
to blessings, but a blind fate, the necessary and unavoid- 
able result of physical causes. If the poor wretch is 
lame, or halt, or blind; if he pines in misery, neglected 
of man, beloved by none, and slighted by all; if noth- 
ing but disappointment has attended him; if all his 
schemes have been frustrated, all his hopes blasted, and 
in return for love he has received hatred, and for kind- 
ness ingratitude ;—what has the atheistic philosophy to 
offer for his comfort? The necessity of unavoidable 
fate. The forlorn and friendless wretch is miserable, 
he must be miserable, it is his fate, and this must be his 
comfort. How poor, how shallow, is this cup of con- 
solation! But if this fail, atheism has one more re- 
source. Life and its troubles are passing, both wil 
soon become a nonentity. Death is approaching, your 
spirit will soon vanish into empty air, your life will ex- 
pire like a meteor that in its rapid passage gilded the 
skies, and left nothing but darkness behind it. You 
will soon be no more; you will have no more existence 
than the flowers which blossomed before the flood, or 
the last rainbow that glittered in the heavens, and melt- 
ed into nothing. Well may the martyr of affliction, 
the sorrowing mother, the widowed hushand, the be- 
reaved orphan, turn to such philosophers and say, 
‘miserable comforters are ye all.” 

How different are the consolations which Christian- 
ity proffers! It assures us that our troubles come nei 


LECT. VI.| |§ WITH CHRISTIANITY. . 300 


ther by chance or fate, but that an infinitely wise, and 
gracious, and righteous Governor of the universe has 
the control of all events; that he possesses the power 
of “making darkness light, and crooked things 
straight ;” and that he “out of seeming evil” is “still 
educing good.” It invites us, in all our perplexities, to 
seek wisdom to guide us, with a certainty that it shall 
not be withheld; it promises aid to our weakness, and 
encourages us in humble confidence and prayer to 
“cast all our care on him who careth for us.” — It cer- 
tifies us of the delightful fact, that our best friend will 
never leave us nor forsake us; that he is “the father of 
the fatherless, and the husband of the widow,” the asy- 
lum of the destitute, the hope of the oppressed, and a 
‘very present help in every time of trouble.” So that 
‘we know that all things work together for good to 
them that love God,” and that their trials are converted 
into mercies, and the most painful crosses into the great- 
est blessings. It teaches us, in fine, to ‘reckon that 
the sufferings of this present state are not worthy to be 
compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us;” 
for “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, 
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
of glory.” Compared with such consolations, what 
are the proffered comforts of atheism but mockery and 
delusion ? 

We have seen, then, that the atheistic philosophy 
has as little ground to boast on account of its professed 
excellence, as it has on its assumed ground of truth; 
that it is, in fact, alike destitute of both. It is some- 
times said of imaginary excellence, how beautiful this 


BAO S.A ATHEISM COMPARED [LEC 
va 


would be were it but true; but atheism has not even 


this merit. Its aspect on man is the most gloomy im- 
aginable. Christianity raises man almost to the level 
of an angel; atheism sinks him to a condition but 
little superior to the brutes; all his excellence it re- 
solves into the perishable forms of matter ; his prospects 
are contracted into’a span, and he has nothing before. 
him but darkness, oblivion, and annihilation. Its mor- 
als, we have seen, are essentially deficient; it has but 
little to support virtue, to restrain vice, or to check 
crime. And as to happiness, it leaves man the sport of 
chance, or the victim of a blind necessity; seeing in 
the whole universe nothing on which his hopes can 
fix as a ground of comfort; no righteous governor, no. 
judge, no friend of the friendless, no refuge in seasons 
of distress, nothing to indemnify suffering virtue, or to 
compensate for all the sorrows of this mortal state. 
And I would on this account earnestly press on those 
who have embraced this heartless, hopeless scheme, the 
reasonableness of laying aside all prejudice in its favor. 
Who can hope to gain any thing from adopting it, but 
he who seeks, in the dark recesses of its gloom, to es- 
cape from the upbraidings of his own conscience, and 
has reason to tremble if it be proved that “ verily there 
is a God that judgeth in the earth ?” 

We have also afforded ample proof, that it is totally 
destitute of truth. We have shown that itis an hypoth- 
esis which will not admit of proof—that there are very 
strong presumptions against it on the very face of it,— 
that the principal arguments in support of it are unten- 


able, as being either founded on mere assumptions, or — 


he 


: ae: Vi.) WITH CHRISTIANITY. 337 


2 ae absurdities and contradictions,—we have 
‘shown that the proofs of a Divine Intelligence are nu- 


merous and unanswerable, and that all the objections 
raised against them, are such as a reasonable mind 
ought not to entertain, 
Being who is at the head of the universe, possesses all 
natural and moral perfections, and is the supreme Lord 
and Governor of all the creatures which he has made ; 
and now I beg leave, with affectionate earnestness, to 
address a few parting words to those of my audience 
who have fallen into the ranks of this species of infi- 
delity. 

Of all men, the atheist should especially beware of 
rashness. Consider, I beseech you, that it is not a 
light thing to take a stand against the sentiments and 
reasonings of so large a majority of mankind, many of 
them men of the greatest independence of mind, the 
most acute in reasoning, and the most extensive in their 
observations on nature. Consider, also, if you are 
wrong, how daring must be the impiety, and how un- 
natural and atrocious the attempt, to endeavor to blot 
from the creation the great Maker of the universe, and 
to fly in the face of Him “in whom we live, and move, 
and have our being.” 

The atheist should, of all men, be most eager to ex- 
amine what others hae to allege. None can possibly 
run such a risk as he does, What risk does the hum- 


ble and devout Christian incur? If the atheistic — 


scheme were true, and he were at last to be found in 
error, he now enjoys the most soothing consolations, is 
animated by the brightest hopes; and if he should sink 


Cd 


we have shown that the Great © 


. 


ha 
~~ . 


338 ATHEISM COMPARED __ [LECT. VI. 


into a state of non-existence and eternal oblivion, would 
his perpetual and unconscious slumbers be less uninter- 
rupted than those of the atheist? But should the 
Christian system prove true, what will become of the 
atheist _—who is found with his puny arm “ fighting 
against God!” Will he be able to stand before the 
tribunal of his insulted Maker, with the false, the im- 
pious, the daring language of excuse and defence 
which one of his favorite authors has put into his 
mouth ? * 

My fellow-men, and fellow-townsmen, let me, by all 
that is sacred, entreat you to stop and pause—your ev- 
erlasting all is staked on the question. And it will 
soon be decided; our sand is running, our lives are 
ebbing, our lamps will soon be burnt out, the journey 
of life will soon be ended, and then—! Allow me to 
breathe the fervent wish that you may be prepared to 
enter that world of happiness, of which you now pro- 
fess to disbelieve the existence. Should the effort which 
I have made, at no small expense of time and strength, 
with my many other engagements, be the means of 
leading you from error to truth, from folly to wisdom, 
from “the power of sin and Satan unto God,” how 
amply repaid shall I consider myself! I have endeav- 
ored so to conduct this argument, as to avoid all un- 
necessary irritation, even of prejudice itself—I have 
addressed you calmly and kindly,—you cannot say that 
you have not been rationally treated, that you have not 
been affectionately addressed; but I must, in now tak- 
ing my leave of you in the discharge of my duty to 


* System of Nature.—Vol. II. pp. 476—480. 


* 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 339 


my God, myself, and to you, warn you again of the 
dangerous position in which you stand. If Christian- 
ity be true—if God has spoken to man by his works 
and by his word, by his prophets in past ages, and by 
the Divine Redeemer in this latter dispensation,—then 
your present course is one of most imminent peril, and 
your eternal welfare is in jeopardy. I believe we shall 
all meet—once more at least, and never perhaps shall 
we all meet till then—before the judgment throne, 
before Him who shall award to all, the final retribu- 
tions of eternity! I take your own consciences to wit- 
ness—I take the present assembly—I take that awful 
power, “whose I am, and whom I serve,” whose om- 
niscient eye at this moment beholds us—I take heaven 
and earth to witness, that I have reasoned with you, 
and counselled you, admonished you, and warned you. 
If you presist in your present course of unbelief and 
disobedience, the consequence will be on your own 
heads. 

Let me also urge on the attention of parents and 
guardians the propriety, nay, the necessity, of making 
the great foundation of all religion a part of the educa- 
tion of those who are entrusted to their care. Do not 
be content with merely apprising them of the truths 
which religion teaches, let them also know the ground 
on which they rest. This is not the age of implicit 
faith; the reverence for opinions, merely because they 
are of long standing and of general extent, is continu- 
ally diminishing; error has now taken the field, and 
error of every kind; and it possesses, in the peculiari- 
ties of the present times, facilities of access to every 


£ 


340 ATHEISM COMPARED [LECT. VI. 


mind; its weapons are furbished, and its partisans are 
active; and should truth remain quiescent, and slumber 
on its rusty armor in dreams of safety, while the foe is 
abroad and active? Teach, then, your interesting 
charge, the nature and the solidity of that foundation 
on which all your hopes rest;—show them that you 
have “not followed cunningly devised fables,’—that 
your faith is not an hereditary prejudice, nor your hope 
a fond delusion. Teach them not only that there is, but 
why you have the undoubted assurance that there is, 
a Supreme and glorious Creator, who is both the Ben- 
efactor and the Judge of man;—show them how his 
name is written on every plant, and shines in every 
sunbeam ;—let them see in all the wonders of science, 
in all the course of nature, in the curious arrangements 
and exquisite adaptations which the structure of plants 
and animals exhibit, the wisdom, power, and goodness 
of the great Parent of mankind. Accustom them thus 
early to “ follow nature up to nature’s God,” and thus, 
while they they acquire a taste for some of the purest 
of earthly pleasures, they will be prepared to find the 
whole creation a most interesting volume of sacred the- 
ology. 

Those who are young in life I may be permitted to 
caution. Beware of being taken by surprise by the 
bold assertions, or of being captivated by the seductions 
of “a vain and deceitful philosophy.” Remember that 
the confidence with which a strange and bold assertion 
may be advanced, is no proof of its truth; and the con- 
tempt and ridicule with which established opinions are 
assailed, is no evidence that they are erroneous. Cau- 


ad 


LECT. VI.] WITH CHRISTIANITY. 341 


tion is necessary, lest your pride and independence may 
be flattered into an acquiescence with what your better 
judgment would condemn; lest either a love of singu- 
larity, an appearance of superiority to vulgar preju- 
dices, or a wish to indulge in pleasures which religion 
would forbid, tempt you to embrace a fatal error. Mis- 
takes the most pernicious may, by the ingenuity of 
sophistry, assume a very plausible appearance. Before 
you think of surrendering any thing to the infidel phi- 
losophy, pause deliberately, examine carefully, and at- 
tentively consider, what, in their works on Natural and 
Revealed Religion, some of the wisest and the best of 
men have to say. 

And you who profess to believe in the gospel, and to 
have embraced the Christianity of the scriptures, let me 
entreat you, let me charge youto be cautious, lest, by 
your thoughtless or improper conduct, you. minister to 
the cause of infidelity, and supply objections to the re- 
ligion which you profess to love. Perhaps it is not too 
much to say, that Christianity has suffered much more 
from its declared friends than from its bitterest enemies. 
Who have corrupted it, secularized it, converted it to 
unholy purposes, marred its beauty, and neutralized its 
power? Not its professed enemies. Who are they 
who, while bearing the name of Christianity, live in 
defiance of all its precepts, and are guilty of vices 
which would disgrace a heathen 1—not the declared 
enemies, but the nominal friends of Christianity. O, it 
is distressing beyond measure, that so pure, and holy, 
and benevolent a system should be thus dishonored and 
obstructed by those who bear its name. You, then, 


342 ATHEISM COMPARED, &c. [LECT «WI. 


who feel its power, who derive from it your highest 
hopes, your choicest comforts, be doubly careful to 
“adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.” 
And for your owu sakes, for the sake of others, and for 
the sake of Him who died to save you, and who has 
entrusted his cause into your hands, let your lives be 
“the epistles of Christ, known and read of all men.” 

And, finally, my respected hearers and townsmen, let 
me give you a caution. You, most of you, profess to 
hold in abhorrence what you consider pernicious errors 
in your neighbors: beware that this abhorrence extend 
not to their persons. Let them not have to complain 
of persecution; let them meet with nothing like unkind- 
ness or contempt. You believe they are in error: shun 
that error, value the truth, and if you possess it, rejoice 
in it more than in “thousands of gold or silver;” but 
let charity and compassion be extended to those whom 
you consider as deceived, as spoiled “through a vain 
and deceitful philosophy.” Remember that contempt 
is not argument, and unkindness is not likely to pro- 
duce conviction. Let your conduct, therefore, be form- 
ed on the model of the gospel; let your practice show 
the superiority of your principles; “in meekness in- 
structing those that oppose themselves, if God_perad- 
venture will give them repentance to the acknowledg- 
ing of the truth.” 


APPENDIX 


TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 


[Tue reasoning of the Author of these Lectures upon 
the existence of God, seems to me so very able and con- 
clusive as not to require any additional arguments upon 
the subject. Still, as a train of thought somewhat dif- 
ferent has occurred to me, which migit come in aid of 
his reasoning, and strengthen the conclusion drawn from 
it, | have deemed it expedient to make it an appendix to 
his work. | #. 

The arguments usually adduced in favor of the 
existence of God, are called the a priors and the 
a posteriort argument. I will examine both of them. 
And first, I conceive that what is called the @ priors 
argument, which is intended tu prove the necessity of 
the Divine existence prior to the creation of any thing 
in the universe, and without any reference at all to this 
creation, is in itself utterly absurd. For this necessity, 
in order to operate upon the existence of the Deity, 
must take place prior to the existence itself, which 


Pr) 


344 wit ‘APPENDIX. 


would involve in it two absurdities ; one, that a necessity 
should arise for an event, when by the supposition there 
was nothing in being out of which it should arise, 7. e. 
when there was nothing in the universe to create the 
necessity; and the other, that this necessity, even if it 
could be supposed, would in itself imply that there was 
a time when the Deity himself was not in existence ; 
since for the necessity to be a causa causans, it must 
itself exist anterior in time to the event upon which it 
operates. Such a solution then would irresistibly lead 
to the conclusion, that the Deity was not, in fact, either 
self-existent or eternal; not self-existent, since he is 
caused by this supposed necessity, be it what it may; 
not eternal, because a being caused, cannot exist until 
after the thing that causes it. I know it is said that 
this necessity is not in itself any thing actually existing 
foreign to the Deity himself, but only an idea in our 
minds, which we are obliged to associate with this ex- 
istence to account for it. If this be the explanation, I 
say that it is no necessity at all, and does not account 
for this existence. 

Putting then this @ priori argument aside as entirely 
unsupported, I come now to the other argument, which 
is called the a posteriori argument, the reasoning from 
effects back to causes; and this I conceive not only as 
entirely satisfactory, but coming almost as neara de- 
monstration of the self-existence and eternity ofthe Deity, 
as a demonstration of a proposition in Euclid; as near a 
demonstration as it is possible for moral reasoning to be. 
What we now see in existence in the universe, be they 
animals, or vegetables, or inanimate matter, must either 
have been created in the first instance by a great First 


* i am 
% 


APPENDIX. | 345 


Cause anterior in time to themselves, and propagated 
in the successive series, which we see to be the course 
in which they follow each other, by his agency; or 
else the series must have existed from all eternity, and 
each link have been of itself capable of producing its 
succeeding one, in the manner in which we see it is 
produced, without the agency of any cause foreign to 
itself whatever. For it will not do to say, that the 
eternity of this series, and the manner in which it is 
continued, may be caused by a supposed necessity ope- 
rating upon it in the first instance, and from that time 
down to the present in all the successive links, since, as 


‘I showed before, a necessity for the production of any 


thing must not only exist prior to the thing itself pro- 
duced, but arise out of something distinct from it, which 
by the supposition can exist no more in this case, than 
in the case of the Deity as before considered, there be- 
ing, by the supposition, nothing to produce the necessi- 
ty. Wecome therefore to the only supposition which 
remains, (setting aside the being of the Deity himself) 
and this is, that the present series of things, be they 
what they may, has existed from all eternity, and that 
each link has been the efficient cause of the succeeding 
one,—in animals, that the parent has been the efficient 
cause of the progeny; in vegetables, that one plant is 
the efficient cause of the succeeding one; and in the 
material world, that all those circumstances, which are 
considered the secondary causes of the changes that are 
produced, or the events which follow them, are in them- 
selves the efficient causes of them. Now by an efficient 
cause, or a cause actually producing an effect, I under- 


346 APPENDIX. 


stand something, let it be of what nature it will, that 
first antends to produce the effect desired, which inten- 
tion supposes both design and will; then, secondly, that 
has power to produce the effect, by which I mean, that 
it has means within its control, let them be what they 
may, of accomplishing, with absolute certainty, the .ob- 
ject intended, viz. bringing to pass the effect desired, 
without the possibility of failing to do it; and, thirdly, 
that understands perfectly the mode in which the effect 
is to be produced, that is, the nature of the process, in 
all its parts and relations, and combinations and conse- 
quences. ‘T'o exemplify these several requisites to con- 
stitute an efficient cause in the production of a plant, 
the plant producing another, must intend to do so, and 
so have a will and be capable of design,—must have 
power to produce it, that is, must have all the means 
necessary for this purpose, without relying upon any 
external aid of any kind,—and must perfectly wnderstand 
the mode or process, 1n all its parts, by which it is to be 
produced. Now it is perfectly obvious that in all these 
requisites of an efficient cause, the plant is wanting. It 
neither intends, has power to produce, nor wnderstands 
any thing relating to the process of germination, or 
growth of a succeeding plant. This is produced by a 
train of what are called secondary causes, which are in 
themselves inadequate to the production of the plant, 
wanting all the requisites named, but only in fact, mate- 
rials and modes, by which the plant is formed and veg- 
etates. The same illustration might be given of ani- 


mals and of all effects produced in the material world, 


— eee 


APPENDIX. . B48 


coming either within what are called the sciences of 
chemistry, natural philosophy in all its branches, and 
astronomy; and indeed in every science where any 
changes or new combinations are effected, in which 
matter is concerned. In all these cases, in the results 
produced, the causes assigned are clearly inadequate to 
the effects which follow, and are in truth nothing more 
than mere modes of operation. 

If these remarks are just when applied to the mate- 
rial world and to brute animals, that there are no effi- 
cient causes discernible, how much more striking the 
fact is, when man himself is considered. So far from 
aman intending, having power, and knowing how to 
produce the human soul,—the nature of it, its connec- 
tion with material organization, and dependence upon 
it in this world, are entirely waknown to him, not being 
seen to have any properties in common with matter, or 
which matter appears in itself capable of receiving. 
How then can a man be considered the efficcent cause 
of a being like himself, about whose nature he is so 
entirely ignorant ? . 

I have shown now that the assigned causes in the 
material, animal, and rational world are not in fact the 
efficient caases of the changes and events produced in 
the first,-and of the continuance of the species in the 
two last, and also that there can be no such thing as 
necessity operating to produce these effects, since there 
can be no such thing as necessity without something to 
produce it, which by the supposition there is not; Lask 
then how can we account for the successive genera- 


348 APPENDIX. 


tions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and of the 
changes in the material world; and not only for these, 
but also for the wonderful regularity and uniformity 
which appear in them; that the same species always 
continue to be so clearly marked and kept so entirely 
distinct from ‘all others; and that the same combina: 
tion of circumstances in material things always pro- 
duces the same result? Why isnot a horse sometimes 
the progeny of a cow, ora dog of a man; and why is 
it that the head is always on the shoulders, and the 
nose on the face?’ Why are these always where they 
should be, to answer the end which they are found to 
answer, and in no other place?’ Why is water always 
converted into ice by cold, and not into air? Why does 
a stone always descend, and never ascend? No neces- 
sity by supposition operates to produce these effects, 
either at all or in a uniform manner. Chance can 
have no power to produce these effects, since first there 
can be no such thing as chance, every thing requiring 
and supposing an efficient cause,—even the throwing 
of dice or the drawing of a lottery, which have more 
the appearance of chance than any thing else. But 
even if we could suppose any thing produced by chance, 
the very word implies an alsence of design, of uniform- 
ity, and of plan; and in such a case we might expect to 
see the world converted into a perfect chaos, some things 
half animal and half vegetable, some half horse and 
half fish, some with heads in one place and some in an- 
other, and some none at all ; some with a nose or ears 
in one place, and some in another, and some without 


APPENDIX. 349 


any; men with only the instinct of brutes, and horses 
and cows with the reason of men; vegetables capable 
in some parts of them of seeing or hearing, and men, 
some of them not having any or but part of the senses. 
This would be the effect that might be expected from 
chance, as such, if such a thing could even be supposed. 
But nothing of this kind is ever seen, except in some 
very rare cases, of what are called lusus nature, and 
which seem to be produced for the very purpose of 
showing that they are a deviation from a uniform plan, 
and that chance has nothing to do with it; since, if wni- 
formity be the result of chance, there never would be 
any thing but waiformity ; if deviation be the result of 
chance, there would be nothing but deviation. 

I have, I think, satisfactorily shown, that nothing can 
be produced by what are called secondary causes, by 
what is called necessity, or by what is called chance. 
There is therefore but one remaining way of accounting 
for their production, and that is, that they are produced 
by some Being, in whom reside the design, the pow er 
and the intelligence necessary for this purpose, and is, 
in other words, the Derry himself, 

Now the Deity himself being proved to be the Author 
of every thing we see in nature, he must himself have 
consequently existed at a period anterior to them all. 
And as we cannot suppose him to have come into 
being at any particular period, since we cannot suppose 
any thing to have existed prior to him, to call him into 
being ; it follows therefore that he must be se/f-existent 
and eternal. And since he is proved to be the Author 


350 APPENDIX. 


of every thing in the universe, and constantly employed 
in all the operations that are going on in it, he must be 
omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient ; that is, having 
absolute control over his works, superintending all of 


them, and understanding all their operations. 


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